


Our Father

by eric_idle_rules



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Church Sex, Confessional, Confessional Sex, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Priests, Religion, Religious Conflict, rosary beads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-17
Updated: 2014-03-20
Packaged: 2018-01-16 03:22:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 29,614
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1330057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eric_idle_rules/pseuds/eric_idle_rules
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on the comments Teddy made about thinking about going into the ministry.  What if he <i>had</i>?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Congrats man,” Cody said as he began walking down the aisle of the church from his seat in the back pew.

Father Ted DiBiase glanced up from his bowl of communion wafers that he was currently putting away to the person who just spoke to him. He thought he knew the voice, but it couldn’t be. There was no possible way that it could be… But it was. “Cody?”

Cody was nearly up to the altar, grinning from ear to ear. “It’s me.”

“What on _earth_ are you doing here?” Ted began removing all his outer wear, placing his things on the table before him.

“I couldn’t possibly miss your first service as an ordained priest, now could I? No way in hell, man, not after the way you’ve been talking about it. I can’t think of anyone else that would be so excited to become a priest. Not that I know any other priests, but you, man, you _wanted_ it.”

“Thank you.” Ted’s statement and smile were totally and utterly genuine. He looked back out amongst the pews, and his smile grew when he spotted his parents. They must have been sitting in the back next to Cody and encouraged him to go up and speak to Ted.

They stood up when they saw Ted looking out at them.

“How come I didn’t see you during communion?” Ted asked Cody.

“Aren’t you supposed to go to confession before receiving communion?”

“Do you have things to confess?”

“You don’t know the half of it,” Cody said with an added wink. “I’m a twenty-five year old gay man and a professional wrestler, what do you think?”

Ted’s parents were now standing next to Cody. “You held a great mass, just like I knew you would,” Ted Sr. told him, a proud smile on his face. “It sounded wonderful.”

“Well, I _have_ held a service before. I had to move up the ranks and all that…” Ted said with a blush.

“Don’t be so modest, son! You should be proud of yourself!”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Well, your mother and I were going to get some breakfast. Were you interested in coming? You too, Cody.”

“Sure,” Ted told him. “Just let me finish cleaning up here, get changed into something… less priestly, and then we’ll be set. You know where I live, just give me a call and meet me outside when you’re there.”

“All right,” Ted’s mum said. With that, they left the two men to talk as they exited the church.

“Isn’t that what altar boys and deacons are for?” Cody asked as Ted drained out the communion wine and cleaned out the goblet. “Why do you gotta do all the shit jobs?”

“Because I’m the new guy. Pretty simple, really.”

“Oh, they do that kind of thing in the church, too?”

“Sure do.”

“So, do you live here?” Cody apparently wasn’t calling it quit with the questions.

“Yeah, right there in the first pew with Jesus watching over me as I sleep,” Ted returned playfully.

“Haha, very funny. At least you haven’t lost your sense of humour.”

“Just because I’m now an ordained Roman Catholic priest doesn’t mean I’m not the same Teddy you’ve always known and loved.”

“Isn’t that sweet? So, you didn’t answer me. You living here with the others?”

“Yeah, in the rectory attached to this place. Well, ok, actually, not quite yet. I will be soon, I’m just in the process of moving in. Even though I liked my little apartment, this comes with the territory.”

“Can I go with you? Check out your digs and all that?”

“My digs?” Cody just shrugged. “Well, really, there’s not much to see there. Just some boxes is all, really.”

“So? I want to see where you’ve been living.”

“If you insist. You ready to go?”

“I’m ready when you are.”

“All right, then. Let’s go out there,” Ted said, pointing to the back exit. “I’m just up the street, so I normally walk there.”

“That’s fine,” Cody replied.

The two exited the church and headed across the path to the sidewalk which led them to Ted’s apartment. It was a pretty plain looking building, some bushes out in the front, but other than that it was… boring. They headed into the building and Ted turned towards the stairs. “It’s only one flight…” he explained, as though taking the stairs would be a problem.

“I’m not complaining.”

They reached the top of the stairs and stood in front of the door number 27. Ted got his key and stuck that into the lock.

“So, when exactly do you get to move in with the big dogs?”

“The big dogs? As in the other Fathers?”

“Yeah. You know, I bet they have big gay ass orgies and shit over there.”

“Cody! Father Liam is 70 years old! That’s the most disgusting thing I’ve ever heard!” Ted exclaimed, cringing at the thought.

“He’d just watch, then,” Cody amended.

Ted punched Cody in the arm. “Don’t be an ass.”

“Hey, you’re a fucking priest, you can’t punch people.”

“I can do whatever the fuck I want. Then I can go and confess all my sins and be absolved of everything.”

“Why don’t you do me, then?” Cody asked, winking at Ted and running a hand up his arm.

Ted grinned at Cody’s teasing. What a ham. “Maybe because I don’t _want_ to do you.”

“Whatever, man. It’s your loss. Trust me, I’ve had loads of guys tell me just what a nice ass I have. Oh, shit, is it _because_ I’m a slut you don’t wanna do me? I don’t have herpes, or anything.”

“We can talk about your potential STDs later, right now, though, we’ve gotta catch up with my parents.”

“Right, sorry, go get changed. You should keep the dog collar, though; it’s a good look on you.”

Ted left Cody standing in the middle of the pile of boxes while he went into the bedroom where he still had some scattered clothes lying around. He began taking off his shirt and pants as he hollered back, “Has anyone ever told you you’re a downright riot?”

“Believe it or not, yeah, people have.”

Ted didn’t say anything further as he pulled on some jeans and a button down shirt. A light blue one. He couldn’t do black, no, he’d never want to wear a black button down again; it was too much like his priest garb.

He headed back out into the joined kitchen/living room space where he saw Cody sprawled out on his old green couch. “You still have this thing?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what I’m gonna do with it once I move, though,” Ted told him, his eyes sad. This couch had been his best friend. During high school and college he found himself crashing on it most of the time. But the rectory was already furnished, and he had no real place to put it. And he certainly didn’t want to sell it off. But his parents didn’t really want it back, either. In fact, they couldn’t wait to get it out of their house once Ted moved out so they could finally get themselves a new one. He looked down at Cody lying over the couch and had an idea. “Do you want it?”

“Me? You’re giving _me_ your trusty couch? Didn’t you name it?”

“No, I didn’t name it. Now get up, we have to go meet my parents outside,” Ted said, smacking Cody’s legs.

“I’m going, I’m going.” He swung his legs down so his feet were on the floor, sitting up at the same time. Once he stood, he was immediately being ushered out the door. They went back down the stairs and out the front door where his parents had their car waiting for them.

Ted walked around to the back driver’s side while Cody got in the back passenger side seat. They both got inside and shut the doors before buckling their seat belts.

“So, where were we going?” Ted asked.

“I was thinking Monroe’s, how does that sound?”

That was Ted’s favourite restaurant. They had the best sit down breakfast, lunch and dinner. Of course it sounds great. “Yeah, that works.”

“So, I’m surprised you managed to sit through an entire service,” Ted said to Cody.

“Oh, please, I was hanging off each and every one of your captivating words,” Cody told him. And that was the truth. Although he didn’t really care what Ted was saying, as long as he was saying something.

“Were you being sarcastic?”

“No, actually, he really was paying attention to you the entire time,” his mother chimed in.

“Thanks, Cody. It really does mean a lot, you being here.”

“Man, how could I _not_ come? You’re, like, big time now. Next step cardinal, and then, picture this: Pope Ted DiBiase, Jr.”

“Yeah, now there’s something that’ll _never_ happen.”

“What are you talking about? I’ve got big dreams for you.”

“Well, you can keep dreaming. I’m quite content being a priest.”

“Sure, for now. I mean, right now I’m happy they’re giving me an intercontinental title reign, but that’s still not the big prize. I want that WWE or world heavyweight championship.”

“Cody… Did you just compare being the WWE champion to being the _Pope_?” Ted asked, shocked and amused at the same time.

“Not exactly… Well, maybe a little bit… Ok, so, yeah, I guess I kind of did. But isn’t it all about being the big man in charge?”

“Yeah, not really… Like I said, I’m happy with being the big man in charge at my little church.”

“Whatever, man.”

Ted, Sr. pulled into the gravel parking lot of Monroe’s and threw the car into park, which automatically unlocked all the doors. “All right, we’re here.”

“Great, because I’m starving,” Cody declared.

The four went in the door and were greeted before being taken to their seats. They were handed their menus and the waitress asked, “Would you like any coffee or juice to start?”

All four of them wound up getting coffee. Once she left, they started browsing the menu, deciding what they wanted. Cody went with pancakes, eggs over easy, toast, hash browns and bacon, and Ted got the same, only he got his eggs scrambled and went with the sausage instead of bacon. Ted, Sr. got a Spanish omelet and Ted’s mum decided on an egg white and tomato and pepper omelet.

Conversation never really slowed, even once their food was delivered. They kept asking Cody how things were going with him and his wrestling career, which had taken off once he joined forces with Randy Orton, DH Smith and eventually Ted’s younger brother Brett to form a faction known as The Legacy. And while they had since broken apart, all their careers were going strong. He was currently the IC Champ, and was planning on holding it for some time to come, at least until he dropped it not too long before a match with Randy for the Heavyweight belt, where he would take it from the man who was his former leader. That was the plan, at least.

Since it had been a while, they were also asking about his parents and siblings, all of whom were doing great. “You should give my dad a call. When I told him I was gonna come out here to visit with Ted, he told me that he hadn’t talked to you in a while. I asked him why he didn’t just call you up, but he shrugged and said ‘I dunno,’ so you should probably do it, since he never will.”

“I’ll remember to do that.”

Once the bill was placed on the center of the table, Ted, Sr. picked up the bill, and Cody went for his wallet to pay for his own breakfast.

“Put that back,” Ted said when Cody tried to hand the cash over to him.

“But—”

“But nothing. We invited you out, we’ll pay for it.”

“Thanks,” Cody told them with a smile, putting the cash back into his wallet.

“How’d you get here, anyway?” Teddy asked Cody.

“I flew. See, a little over 100 years ago, the Wright brothers invented the airplane. Over the years the technology has been improved immensely and people can actually _fly_ from one place to another.”

“Really? Wow, I must have been living under a _rock_. I had no idea!” Ted replied just as sarcastically as Cody had said it.

“Yeah, it’s amazing, isn’t it? But, really, I flew in yesterday and rented a car and found a hotel in downtown, not too far away from the church, so I just walked there. I figured it was a nice enough day to just go walking…”

“How long you planning on staying?”

“Well, I can’t stay for too long. I do have Raw to be at tomorrow. So, I’ll probably stay there another night and head out tomorrow morning bright and early. We’re only in—”

“You’re in Texas tomorrow, right?”

“Why, Teddy, do you watch me on the TV every week?”

“I really only watch it for Brett,” Ted teased. “But, yeah, of course I do. I can’t pass up seeing my best friend and brother up on the TV every week, now can I? Sure, some of the other guys give me a hard time about it, but my whole family is tied to the business, so most of them understand.”

“So, did you guys want us to bring you back to the apartment, or did you want to walk around? What’s up?”

Ted looked to Cody, who looked back to him and shrugged. “We’ll walk,” Ted answered. “Like Cody said, it’s a nice day to go walking.”

“All right, then. We’ll see you two later.”

“Bye!”

With that, Ted’s parents stood from their seats, pushed their chairs in and walked out of the restaurant.

“We should probably get going.”

“Why, do you have some more priestly duties to attend to?”

“I do have a mass later tonight. But we should probably get out of here, since I think the waitresses are giving us nasty looks. Either that or they’re checking you out.”

“Not like they’d have a chance with me. Girls have cooties.”

Ted began laughing. Some of the things that came out of Cody’s mouth, man, he wondered why he was friends with the kid sometimes. “Come on, we’ll go back to the apartment.”

“So, do you get to sit in the confessional booth?” Cody asked once they were outside.

“I do. And, no, I can’t tell you what people say.”

“Shit, where’s the fun in that?”

“It’s all confidential. If I told someone—”

“I don’t even _know_ these people. Come on, I know there’s gotta be _something_ you want to talk about. You must have some amazing stories. It’s not like I need names. Just the dirty deeds.”

Ted relented and said, “Fine, but nothing until we’re back in the apartment. Got it?”

“Sir, yes sir! And I’ll even tell you some of my good stories, how does that sound? Fair trade?”

“Sure, fair enough.”

They walked through the streets, heading back to Ted’s place during the humid Mississippi summer. The walk was mostly in silence, only a few scattered comments here and there breaking it. Finally back inside, Ted led Cody up to his room, and they both took seats on the couch.

“So, what was the first confession you got to hear?”

“I haven’t gotten to hear that many yet, since I haven’t been a Father that long, ya know? But the first one I heard was some little old lady, oh I still can’t even believe this one, this little old lady comes into the box and starts to confess about… How she lied to her husband… She told him the dog was… passing gas and making the room stink so bad, but it was really her because she had eaten too much broccoli. Cody, I don’t know how I managed to keep a straight face through that one.”

“That’s the kind of shit you hear in there?” Cody asked through his laughter. “How do you even reply to that?”

“I told her that the Heavenly Father had forgiven her for her over consumption of the offending vegetable. And I think I threw in an order for her to say five Hail Mary’s.”

“Holy shit, man. That’s funny. So, you heard any juicy ones yet?”

“Well, there was one guy that came in yesterday, actually. I know the guy, too, so I was shocked as hell when he started telling me about this one. He starts out talking about how he went out of town on a business trip, and then, while he’s out there, picks up a _guy_ at a bar and has sex with him back in his hotel room. Then after, he kicked the guy out and called up his wife and two daughters.”

“Shit.”

“Shit, indeed. He also said that wasn’t the first time he had done that. He told me that every time he goes out on business he winds up sleeping with at least one guy. I feel so bad for his wife and kids, because I can’t say anything to them about him.”

“Yeah… Wow.”

“So, now I think it’s time for one of your stories.”

“Ok, let’s see… How about the one where Randy and I double teamed your brother, him in the back, me—”

“CODY!” Ted yelled, his eyes wide.

“Shit, I’m joking! I wouldn’t do that to your brother. And it’s not like I’d ever tell you if I did.”

“You’re such a shit head. Come on, don’t give me a heart attack like that.”

“Ok. Let’s see. I know. There was this time, oh, last month, when I brought this guy back to my room. We were in the middle of fucking, like, I was giving it to him _hard_ , his head was all thrown back and he was moaning my name, when all of a sudden, Randy unlocks the room door, I always give him a spare key, just incase, and is like ‘Hey, Codeman, we gotta talk!’ So, there he is, standing in the door frame, leaving the door fucking wiiiiide open, and there’s me and this guy with my dick up his ass for anyone to see.

“So, I’m like, yelling at Randy ‘Either get the hell out or get the fuck in here and close the goddamn door!’ So, naturally, he came in the room. And he sits down in the chair next to the bed. The other guy is, like, completely speechless, and Randy says, ‘Are you gonna finish, or not?’ I didn’t have a problem fucking this guy with Randy there, not like he’s never watched me before, but this guy was pretty hesitant. He wound up leaving, the chicken shit.”

“Have I ever told you that you’ve only gotten cruder as the years go by? Really, it amazes me.”

“Nah, I’ve only gotten cruder since you told me you were actually really gonna do the priest thing. I’m shocked you still manage to put up with me.”

“I am, too.”

“But, let’s face it; you wouldn’t be able to get by without me.”

“Yeah, sure. So, that actually happened to you? What did he have to talk to you about that was so important?”

“Some angle idea for our upcoming storyline together. You know the one where I go for his belt? It was just in the works at that point. It was certainly the strangest talk I’ve never had with him, since I was sitting on the bed, completely naked… Before we got started I even had to go throw out the used condom… I mean, yeah, me and him have fucked before, but—”

“Wait, you and Randy…?”

“Didn’t I tell you, dude? I lost my virginity to him when I was fourteen.”

“He’s five years older than you!”

“Yeah, so what?”

“I guess I just forgot…”

What Cody didn’t say to Ted was that he always wished it had been _him_ that had the chance to take his virginity. He could envision them together so well. If Ted had been his first, it would have been so sweet. Not that it wasn’t great with Randy, because it was, and he didn’t regret it in the least bit, but he could just see himself with Ted down at the edge of the pond in the back yard of his parents’ house, kissing, making love to one another.

“Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if _you_ were in the WWE with me,” Cody said, changing the subject. “You’d probably be there keeping me in check. But, man, think about it. We could have been tag champs, and I bet you would have been in Legacy with us instead of DH.”

“Yeah, I doubt that.”

“Oh, please. You said it before: wrestling’s in your blood. You would have been a natural. But you chose God.”

“Nah. God chose me. This was my calling, Cody.”

“I can imagine, though, can’t I?”

“Of course. Sometimes I think about it too, but I know in my heart that I made the right decision going into the clergy. Sometimes I’ll think about what we could have done together, shoot, we could have taken the wrestling world by storm. But not now. This is what I’ve chosen to do with my life, and I plan on being with the church for the rest of my life.”

“Whatever floats your boat. How’ll you be able to handle that whole celibacy thing, though?”

“Worked pretty well for me up to this point in my life.”

“No fucking way! You’re seriously still a virgin?!”

“Uh, yeah. I went to a Catholic high school and college, then I started training for priesthood, knowing the whole time that I’d have to be celibate. I figured why bother ever getting laid in the first place?”

“How the fuck have you managed to last twenty-seven years without ever having had sex? I couldn’t imagine…”

“I know _you_ couldn’t. Shit, you’re screwing anything with two legs and a penis.”

Cody loved the fact that Ted was so cool about him being gay. When Ted was 18, that’s when he told Cody he was going to go through with his dream of being a Catholic priest. And that’s when Cody came out to him. Yeah, it was two years after he had actually had sex with another man for the first time, but it had to happen at some point.

He had to tell him then, it was now or never, or so he felt. He had to do it to see how Ted would be around him. If his extremely religious self would suddenly turn on his best friend because of the simple fact that he preferred men to women, then, well, it was better that he knew then as opposed to having a falling out later on in their lives.

But Ted had no issue with it at all. Ok, well, he was slightly weirded out about it. For about thirty seconds. Then he realized that Cody was still Cody. He hadn’t suddenly become a whole new person. If anything he just became a better person for it.

“What can I say? I like sex. Oh, shit! If you’re serious about this whole sleep over thing, I gotta go check out of my hotel before I wind up getting charged for another night there.”

“Oh, well, did you want me to drive you over there?”

“You don’t mind?”

“Cody, you came all the way out here to surprise me at my first mass. The least I can do is drive you over to your hotel so you can check out to come spend the night with me.”

“Oh, so now I’m not just spending the night at your place, I’m spending the night _with_ you?”

“Ass. You know what I mean?”

Damn. Yeah, sure, Cody may tease Ted constantly, taking everything Ted said and spinning it around to come across as something sexual, but it just seemed like Ted would never realize that what Cody said about them getting together was what he wanted to happen. One of these days he’d have to come clean, to confess his true feelings. Wait a second… Confess… That’s exactly what Cody would have to do.

“We going, or not?”

“Oh, yeah, right. Thanks again, Teddy.”

“It’s no problem. Come on,” Ted said, dragging Cody out of the room. “Where you staying, anyway?”

“Hampton Inn,” Cody answered.

“All right. We’ll be there in five minutes.”

And in five minutes they were indeed there. Cody headed in and, after grabbing his bags out of his room, checked himself out of it. He left the hotel and made his way over to Ted’s car. He opened the back door and threw his stuff in before going back up front. “Ok, we’re good.” He slid into his seat and shut the door, clicking his seat belt in place. “What are you gonna go do now?”

“Let’s just go hang out in the apartment. That ok with you?”

“That sounds great.”

They were back at the apartment complex in the same five minutes it took them to get to the hotel, and they were once more upstairs.

Cody kicked off his shoes and headed once more to the couch. Ted sat down on the opposite end.

“So, what did you say you have to do tonight?”

“I’ve got another mass at 6. I’m sorry, man, you know I’d love to be able to spend all the time you have here hanging out, but—”

“It’s ok. I’ll go to the mass.”

“Two in one day?”

“Gotta make up for lost time,” Cody joked. “Plus, I get to listen to your sexy ass self for another hour, how the hell can I pass that up?”

Ted felt a blush forming on his face. “Why do you have to do that all the time?”

“What, am I embarrassing you?” Cody nudged Ted with his shoulder and a smirk graced his face. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you that your accent is the sexiest thing on the planet?”

“Everyone else around here has the same accent,” Ted replied, still incredibly embarrassed.

“That shouldn’t matter, now should it?”

“How many guys have you told that to before?”

Cody sat back into the cushion and thought about his answer. “I, uh… Yeah, I have no clue. A lot. Guys love it overseas.”

“I don’t know how you can stand that. Just… Doesn’t it bother you going from one guy to the next, with no _anything_ between you and whoever you decide to have sex with that night?”

“That’s just how it’s always been. It’s not like I’m _looking_ for ‘the one,’ ya know? I’m still young; I just want to have some fun.”

“Randy taught you well, then.”

“He’s helped it along, yeah. But, really, I was the one that begged him, because I needed to know what it was like. Funny thing is, the only thing he really worried about was the age thing. He never once said he didn’t want to fuck me, all he said was that he could get into deep shit for it. So, is this, like, a confession?”

“It is a confession, sure, but not an official one. Which means I’m not obligated to keep my mouth shut about any of this. Of course, you’re also not confessing to God, and none of your sins are getting absolved.”

“That’s fine by me. At the rate I’m going, I’m bound to be going to hell no matter what I do. There’s no saving me. Especially since I’ll be a raging homo until the day I die.”

“Everyone can be saved.”

Cody smiled at Ted; he always knew what to say to make him feel better. It was like a gift. No, it wasn’t _like_ a gift, it _was_ a gift. “Thanks, man. Ok, then, on a better topic…”

“Yeah, that sounds good. How come you _are_ so crude around me?”

“Because you’ve never told me to stop. And I don’t think you really care. Unless you do. And if you do, then just tell me, and I’ll stop. I mean, I’ll try to stop. But I like giving you a hard time about, oh, _everything_.”

“It’s fine.”

“Good, because I’d have a hard time trying to _not_ be crude… Besides, I know you love it. You fucking love listening to me talk about my exploits. It’s cool. You don’t have to admit it; I just know.”

“Your exploits are fairly amusing, I’ll give you that.”

“For being a priest, you don’t seem _too_ conservative.”

“You’re my best friend, I can’t be _super_ conservative. But I’m conservative enough.”

“Do you have to pray every night before you go to bed?”

“I do a whole string of Hail Mary’s and an Our Father.”

“A string of Hail Mary’s… You mean you have to do the whole Rosary?”

“I do.”

“Even though you’re here all by yourself, you still do them? You never cheat?”

“Never.”

“Show me.”

Ted looked confused. Cody really wanted him to show him what he does? “What?”

“Show me how you pray.”

“Ok.” Ted stood up, and Cody did as well. He followed Ted over to a table, where he picked up his Rosary and a second one, since he always had some spares lying around. “Here,” he said, handing a blue one over to Cody. He held his white one in his hands and walked back over to the couch. “Kneel down.”

“I’ve heard that one before.”

“Cody! You ask me to show you—”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Ok, I’m kneeling down,” he said as he knelt in front of the couch.

Ted knelt beside him and told him, “I’m supposed to say a prayer for every bead on here every night. We won’t do all them now, since it takes a while… Ok, do you remember the Hail Mary from your Sunday School classes?”

“No.”

“All right, then, take hold of the first bead in between your thumb and pointer finger and repeat after me.”

He waited for Cody to hold the necklace correctly and then began. “Hail Mary, full of grace,” and paused for Cody to repeat.

“Our Lord is with thee.”

And they went through the brief prayer line by line, Ted reciting it for Cody to repeat. A second and a third time, moving up the string to show Cody just a little bit of what he did each night. There was no sign from Cody, either, showing that he was annoyed or that he thought it was utterly ridiculous.

After a fifth Hail Mary, which Ted no longer had to say, Cody had caught on pretty fast, Ted said, “Ok, I think that’s enough for now. If you’re staying here tonight, you’re welcome to join me in my evening prayers.”

“Maybe I will.”

“Really?”

“Maybe. So, didn’t you say you have to do an Our Father, as well?”

Yeah. You want to do one of those now, as well?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you remember this one?”

“I think I could follow along.”

Both men began to recite the Lord’s Prayer, taking it slowly as the words came back to Cody. “Our Father, who art in Heaven; Hallowed be thy name; Thy kingdom done; Thy will be done; On Earth as it is in Heaven; Give us this day our daily bread; And forgive us our trespasses; As we forgive those who trespass against us; And lead us not into temptation; But deliver us from evil.”

At this point Cody fell silent as Teddy continued with the final three lines, “For thine is the Kingdom; and the power, and the glory; for ever and ever. Amen.”

“Amen,” Cody repeated.

“And there you have it.”

Cody climbed onto the couch and sat down once more. “Has anyone ever said that that prayer is really dirty? Thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven? Well, I’ve been done a lot of ways, but, as far as I know, it’s _never_ been like it’d be in _Heaven_.”

“Cody, you’re so… I can’t even…”

“I know,” Cody answered with a smirk. “Did I ruin the moment?”

“No, you just… You made it your own.”

They sat around for a while longer, watching TV, talking about whatever came to their minds, eating some lunch when they got hungry.

“When do you have to get to the church?”

“I should probably go now.”

“Ok, let’s go, then.”

“Oh? You want to come?”

“Yeah. I think I’ll just… hang out in the pews or something…”

“If you’re sure.”

Once they were in the church, Ted went out back to begin preparations for the evening’s mass. Cody walked around for a while, looking at the posted flyers.

“Hello, can I help you?” one man asked Cody, who did, admittedly, look pretty lost.

“Hmm? Oh, no, I’m just waiting for Teddy, oh, sorry, Father Ted… DiBiase.”

“You know the Father? I don’t recall seeing you around before. I’m Deacon Robert, by the way,” he introduced, sticking his hand out.

Cody shook the offered hand and introduced himself, as well, “I’m Cody Runnels. Or Rhodes, I’ll go by either… I’ve known Teddy, shi- shoot, since we were toddling around backstage arenas with our fathers.”

“Oh, you’re that man that Ted talks about watching on TV, aren’t you?”

“Teddy talks about me?”

“All the time,” the Deacon answered.

“I’m sorry, I just called him Teddy again. I’ll never get used to calling him Father Ted.”

“That’s because he’s not Father Ted to you. He’s always been Teddy.”

“True. Hey, so, what is a Deacon, anyway?” Cody asked, ever curious.

As the two of them talked, Ted walked out to the altar and spotted them, and he smiled. He couldn’t help but wonder just what it was Cody was asking Deacon Robert about. He guessed Rob had seen Cody wandering around and said hello. Little did he know how chatty Cody could get. He also threw up a quick prayer to the Man Upstairs that Cody would tone down his normal crudeness a notch or four…

People started filing in for the service, a few of them coming up to speak to Ted before it started. Cody went to find a seat, this time closer to Ted. Some people recognized him, saying hello, before sitting down.

The night mass went well, with Cody hanging on, once more, to each and every one of Ted’s words. Cody was amazed at how well Ted managed to keep his attention, especially since it was all talk of God and all that. He could have sworn he saw a blush on Ted’s face when he told them to pull out their hymn books. Was Teddy going to lead them in song? Oh, this was priceless.

Ted began to sing, and Cody was once more taken aback. He really had a nice voice. It was pleasant to listen to, just as smooth as listening to him speak. Cody’s eyes fell shut as Ted’s voice resounded through the church.

People began to pack up and leave once they had communion and said their final prayers. Ted cleaned up at the altar and raised an eyebrow as he saw Cody heading in the direction of the confessional booth. Cody caught his eye and tilted his head, asking silently if Ted was going to follow.

Cody sat down in the confessional box, hoping that Ted would follow. When he heard Ted get in the box on the other side, he began to speak, “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.”

“What are you doing in here?” Ted asked, not looking up through the gate to Cody.

“Confessing.”

“All right... When was your last confession?” he asked, as that was procedure.

“When I was in 2nd grade,” Cody answered.

“When you were seven years old?!” Ted replied, sounding more than a little surprised.

“Yeah, it was just before my first communion. So, I’m guessing you want to hear it all, then... Well, let’s face it, you already know everything."

“Then why are you here?” Ted asked again, this time looking through the screen directly at his life long friend.

Cody returned the look, forcing himself to gaze directly into Teddy's eyes as he answered, “To tell you the one thing you _don't_ know.”

“So, what is it that I don’t know?”

“You have to promise me that you won’t say anything until I’m finished talking, ok?”

“Promise.”

“Ok. I know I tease you a lot about me being gay and saying things about how you want me and all that… But that’s the thing, Teddy, I _do_ want you. I mean, how could I not? You’re gorgeous and you’re… You’re like forbidden territory.”

“I know,” Teddy whispered.

“What?”

“I said I know.”

“How…?”

“Trust me, I’ve known you long enough to know when you’re teasing for the sheer sake of teasing and when you’re being jokingly serious. Plus, look around at this, at what I do. I talk to people all the time. I’ve had to get to be good at reading them.”

“How long have you known?”

“A long time. A really long time. I’d say since the time you came out to me.”

“If you’ve known all this time, how come you never said anything about it?”

“What would I have said to you, Cody? I know you have a crush on me, could you please stop, since I’m going to be a priest and can’t act on anything?”

“Would you act on it? If you knew you weren’t going to be a priest, would you have acted on it?” Cody asked, locking his eyes with Ted and putting his hand on the screen.

“I… I don’t know…”

“Yes, you do know.”

“If I hadn’t known at that point I was going to be a priest… I think I… Yeah, I’d like to have acted on it.”

“Why didn’t you, Teddy? Why couldn’t you have said something back then to me?”

“I don’t know… I was scared, I guess… I couldn’t, I didn’t want to… I don’t know, Cody. But I did know I wanted to be a priest, and I just couldn’t let myself get involved with anyone, much less you because then I’d never be able to go back to you. Like I told you earlier, this is my calling. I was meant to be a priest, and if I were to have gotten involved with you, I know that I wouldn’t have been able to do this. Because I would be with you still, and I couldn’t stand not being able to touch you ever again,” Ted finished, placing his hand over Cody’s on the grate.

“Let me in there.”

Ted nodded and opened the front door, letting Cody out and into his side. Cody closed the door behind him and was instantly on Ted, straddling his legs as he crushed his lips down on Ted’s.

It was like nothing Cody had experienced before, and he had certainly experienced a lot. This was the man he had wanted for years. And, according to what Ted just said, those feelings had been reciprocated for about the same length of time.

“We can’t do this, Cody,” Ted said, pulling away. “I… We can’t have sex.”

“Then we’ll get around that,” Cody replied, placing another kiss on Ted’s lips. “Please, Ted, I need _something_. We don’t have to go all the way, really, we don’t. I’m not going to do anything that you don’t want to do. But… There’s nothing wrong with kissing, is there?” Cody asked, dropping another kiss on Ted’s mouth. This time he slipped his tongue out and ran it over Ted’s lips, begging him to part them, which he did. Cody’s tongue ran over Ted’s, exploring his entire mouth.

“No,” Ted muttered through kisses. “Guess not.”

Cody reached his hand down to feel Ted’s growing hardness through his garments, moaning when he felt Ted’s cock twitch in his hand.

Shocked at all these new emotions and sensations, Ted pushed Cody off of him. “That’s… No, that’s too much.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll go slower, ok?”

“I think we should stop this.”

“No! We can’t stop now.”

“This is all too much for me, Cody…”

“Just… Please, just let me touch you some more. And tell me any time you feel uncomfortable. And if you really need to stop, if it really gets to be too much, I’ll stop.”

“Ok.”

Cody went back in, this time letting his hand slip inside Ted’s robes, undoing some buttons so he could touch Ted’s chest and stomach. He let his hands run over the defined muscle that lay under the mound of clothing. “You need to stop covering up so much,” Cody muttered into his ear.

“I didn’t know this could feel so good.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know.” Cody brushed a nipple, and Ted gasped audibly. “See what I mean?”

“Yeah.”

“Is this why they don’t want you guys having sex? Because pleasure of the body corrupts the mind, or something?”

“I don’t know, I just do what I’m told,” Ted answered, too caught up in his feelings to even think about what Cody was asking him.

“Don’t you wish you had done this before?”

“With you?”

While that wasn’t exactly what Cody had meant, it worked. “Yeah, with me.”

“Yes,” Ted whispered.

Cody’s breath hitched when Ted gave his answer. He looked into Ted’s eyes and smiled. He then placed a kiss on Ted’s lips again before sliding off Ted’s lap, kneeling before him. “If you can’t handle what I’m going to do, don’t be afraid to tell me, and I’ll stop, I swear.”

With that, he lifted Ted’s robes, moving all the fabric out of the way, and quickly unbuttoning and unzipping the dress pants he had on underneath. A pair of black briefs covered him up even further.

“You wear too many clothes.”

“It’s not like we’re ever planning on doing this with someone,” Ted answered, awaiting just whatever Cody had in store for him. ‘Please, forgive me, God,’ he said in silent prayer before he felt Cody’s tongue on his dick.

It was as though something inside of him had been awoken. The sparks flew between them, with each trip Cody’s tongue made up and down Ted’s cock, it seemed like those sparks kept growing, kept getting stronger.

Ted had never felt anything like this before. He had his best friend’s mouth encasing his dick in a confessional box, the same confessional box that was meant to be a telephone line direct to God. Cody’s mouth was so… so hot and so wet around him. He really didn’t think he could last.

“Cody…” Ted moaned, causing Cody to pull off.

Cody smirked and soon was sitting back on Ted’s lap. He leaned his head forward and started licking at Ted’s ear. “I bet you’re wondering why I stopped.” He ground his hips forward, letting his jean clad crotch rub against Ted’s exposed cock. “That’s why.”

Ted groaned at the friction of the rough cloth against the sensitive flesh. When Cody did it again, Ted’s hips, seemingly of their own accord, jerked up, trying to get some more of that feeling. Cody’s mouth was back on his, and this time Ted let his tongue hesitantly explore Cody’s mouth.

Their hips were working together, Cody wanting to bring as much pleasure to Ted as he could, and Ted wanting to get as much for himself as possible. Cody was tight in his jeans, the fabric holding him back. But this was for Ted. Cody had to show Ted just how good he could feel. And he knew that with the way he was feeling, he wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.

Ted was on the brink, the both of them knew it. It was so much to take in all at once, how could he _not_ be close? Cody kept his mouth clamped to Ted’s when the orgasm finally ripped through Ted’s body, so any cries and groans would be lost inside his mouth.

Cody pulled back, having yet to come himself (he could take care of that soon enough), and smiled down at Ted. “How was that?”

“That… It felt so good, Cody.”

“Are you going to confess this? Next time you have to go to confession yourself, will you say this is one of your sins?”

“I don’t know.”

“It shouldn’t be a sin.”

“I acted on lust. That is a sin.”

“That’s all it is, then? Lust? It’s nothing more than that?”

“Well… No, to me… But in the eyes of God? You never know.”

“Do you still believe this is your calling? After all that, is this still what you think you should be doing?”

“Yes. This is what I was meant to do.”

“Then what about me?”

“I’d still like you to stay at my place tonight, if that answers anything.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“What’s going to happen with us now?”

“Are you still going to sleep around? A man in every town?”

Cody bit his lower lip as he thought of what Ted was asking. That had been his lifestyle for _years_. But if Ted wanted to have something, _anything_ with him, then he’d change it in a heartbeat. “No.”

“Even though you won’t be able to see me often? Even though…”

“Ted, I’ll have something with you. I’ll give up sex for the rest of my life if I can just _be_ with you. That’s assuming things would work out between us.”

“Haha. I think maybe we should get out of here.”

“Yeah…”

Cody stood up and let Ted out first, who took a little time to adjust his robes before opening the door. He looked around, thankful no one else was out there. Cody soon followed.

They walked up the stairs, and they both looked out at the pews. Cody turned around and glanced up at the cross with Jesus hanging off of it. He then looked to Ted and once more out at the pews. He got in close to Ted and whispered into his ear, “One of these days, I’ll have you fucking the hell out of me on that first pew as our old pal Jesus looks on.”

Ted’s eyes widened at Cody’s words. “Don’t say things like that!”

“Why? I know you want it.”

“That’s just it… I do.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Follows right after Our Father. Ted has to make a choice between the two men in his life. And can Cody manage to even stay away from Randy?

“Where did you want me to sleep?” Cody asked in a quiet tone once he and Ted arrived back at Ted’s place. 

“You can stay on the couch,” Ted answered him. 

“Will things be awkward between us now?” Cody took a seat on the couch and looked up at Ted.

Ted sat down, as well, giving Cody a small smile. “I hope not. This is totally new to me, though. I don’t know… I’m not sure how to deal with it.”

“You just have to roll with it. You wanted it, Teddy, remember that. We both did.”

There was no way he could deny that. He wanted his best friend, had wanted him for as long as he could remember… That was one of the reasons he was driven to become a priest. He needed to quell his desires, and he always had such strong desires for his younger friend. His younger male friend, at that. So what better way than to deny the body of all its wants than to become a priest? 

Well, ok, that wasn’t the only reason. He truly had felt as though he was called to do this, like he was hand picked to spread God’s word. Ever since he was young, he enjoyed going to church, enjoyed listening to the Father give his service. This was a job that only a select few would want to have, what with the strict rules and guidelines, which would ultimately be judged by none other than the Big Man himself, God. 

After a pause to gather his thoughts, Ted finally replied, “I may have wanted it, but I shouldn’t have let you… do anything. I know better. This is more than just my job that we’re talking about. I put my entire being on the line.”

“And did God strike you down for getting your dick sucked by a dude?”

Ted ran his hands through his hair in pure frustration. “Dammit, Cody, this isn’t the time to joke!” 

“Woah there, bud. It’s ok, man, I’ve yet to get sucked down into the eternal circle of hellfire and brimstone for givin’ it to a guy.”

“Would you, for once in your _life_ , not talk about your dick and your affinity for men? Please?”

“Sorry,” Cody acquiesced. 

“No, I’m sorry. I’m just not myself right now.” Ted looked at his friend and gave him a small smile. “I’m going to pray.” Ted placed a hand on Cody’s lap as he pushed himself up and off the couch. 

“Wait, Teddy,” Cody said, grabbing onto Ted’s wrist. “What about… Was this only a one time thing?” He stood up, making sure to stand close, getting in Ted’s personal space. 

“I…”

“Will you let me kiss you again?” he whispered.

Silence. Ted knew he should back the fuck up, get himself out of this _now_ before he got himself in too deep, to the point where he could no longer crawl out. Instead he stood there, feeling Cody’s breath on his face and reading the question in his eyes. Watching as those ice blue eyes fell shut as the face came closer and pressed lips to lips.

Why was it that it _felt_ so right, but was so fucking wrong? Their bodies were the perfect fit for one another, just like their personalities. What a fucker that God fella was. He put Cody and Teddy on the earth together, had them grow up together as best friends, best friends who could easily be the most perfect couple on all of His green earth, then threw a wrench into it all when He showed Teddy that his true path was with Him. It just wasn’t fucking fair! His entire body wanted, no _needed_ to be with Cody, but his mind was screaming at him to STOP! Stop it all _now_! His heart was supposed to belong with God. His body was supposed to belong with God. His _soul_ was supposed to belong with God. God and Cody were not supposed to be synonymous with one another. Cody was not supposed to be greater than God. So why was he? SHIT!

Ted pulled back out of the kiss, dropping his hands to the side, the hands that had previously been inside Cody’s jean pockets. “Please, Cody, give me some space. Just… Let me pray.”

“For your soul?” Cody asked with a bite in his voice.

“For an answer,” Ted replied. He turned away and walked into his room, closing the door behind him. 

Cody sighed and sat down on the couch, flipping on the TV where he absently stared at it, not exactly watching reruns of Planet Earth. Fuck.

Teddy held his rosary in his hand, going through bead after bead of “Hail Mary full of grace…” When he completed his string of Hail Mary’s, he still had no answer, and his knees were killing him. He nearly turned to the Lord’s Prayer, but that had become Cody’s prayer. Ok, so that was out. He turned his head to the side, spotting his trusty Bible. Maybe a passage from his Book would help him find an answer. As long as he avoided Leviticus, right?

He wound up doing another string of Hail Mary’s instead. 

Cody wound up falling asleep in front of the TV after sitting there mindlessly for a couple hours. Before going to bed himself, Ted went out to the other room to get a glass of water, his mental excuse for checking on Cody. When he saw that Cody had fallen asleep, he switched off the TV and the light before heading back into his own room.

The next morning, Ted woke up, still with a guilty conscience. It’s not like he did anything terrible… Except he truly did hold lust in his heart. Although, at this point, after carrying the feeling around for so long, even though it had been buried within him for so long, could it really be called _lust_? Well, it’s not like loving a man was any less of a sin…

He headed out to the main room to pour himself some cereal. He noticed Cody was still sleeping. Looking down at the younger man, he couldn’t help but feel that twinge of guilt as he felt arousal stirring. Cody looked so peaceful, so innocent, so sweet. How could Ted have resisted him for this long?

“I know you’re staring,” Cody muttered sleepily. 

“Sorry…” Ted muttered, turning away to start rummaging for a bowl. 

“It’s ok. I know you want me.”

Ted really had no idea what to say. Yeah, he really _did_ want him. 

“Please don’t tell me you’re still feeling bad about what we did yesterday.” Cody sat up and rubbed his eyes before standing up to join Ted by the counter. 

“Cereal?”

“Fuck, you do!”

“I… It’s new to me, Cody. It’s all new. Incase you forgot, this isn’t supposed to be something I know at all. I’m supposed to be celibate.”

“I know, I know. It just sucks, though… I’ve wanted you for so long, and finally got a taste…”

“I know the feeling…”

“Will there still be anything between us? I told you last night that I would stop sleeping around as long as I knew that I had you. I need to know, Teddy, do I still have you?”

“You always have me.”

Cody grabbed Teddy’s shoulders and spun him so they were facing one another. “Kiss me. Before you pour yourself that bowl of cereal, all I want you to do is kiss me.”

“Don’t do this to me.”

“So, it’s ok when someone else initiates it, but not you?”

“I never said that… Cody, I don’t fucking know what I’m going through right now.”

“Kiss me now, think about it later.” Just one little kiss was all Cody was asking for. He wanted anything he could get at this point. Shit, he’d take a kiss on the cheek. 

Ted closed his eyes and leaned forward, placing a kiss right on Cody’s lips. His nerves were so shot, he was shaking. “Can I have my cereal now?”

“Yeah,” Cody answered with a smile. 

It was only about an hour later when Cody told Ted he had to get to the airport soon. Couldn’t miss Raw that night, after all. Cody gave Ted another kiss before he left Ted’s apartment when the cab he called arrived. “Don’t forget to watch me tonight.”

“I told you already, I watch for Brett.”

“Dude, I know Brett is your excuse to watch my sexy ass parading around in spandex with other half naked men.”

“Like Randy…” Ted muttered.

Cody’s head shot up. Had he heard that right? “What did you just say?”

“I said like Randy. Half naked men like Randy that you used to fuck.” This time Cody’s eyes began to wander, as though Ted said something he disagreed with. “Wait, do you and Randy still…?”

“Yeah, ok, we do. We’ve been fucking for _years_. We’re each other’s go to guys when it’s a lousy night at the bar.”

“Guess I should have known… Cody, are you done with him, too? Because I can’t give you everything that you need… And I shouldn’t even be giving you this much. I want you to be happy.”

“I told you I was done with that.” He could do it, give up the sex with random strangers… and Randy… knowing that he had _some_ part of Teddy. He hoped. “I’ll see you later, Teddy,” Cody told him. 

“Bye.”

Cody kissed Ted a final time before leaving for the airport.

It wasn’t long after Cody left before Ted found himself in his car. Where he was going, he didn’t know, but he had to find a church where he wouldn’t be recognized. He couldn’t risk confessing his sins to someone in his own church. So what if everything was supposed to stay confidential, there’s no way he could live with himself if he told another priest that he would be living with that he had some form of sexual relations with his best friend. 

He drove for at least two hours before he saw a St. Thomas church in a small town. He pulled into the dirt parking lot in front and walked through the front doors. It was policy to wear the white collar, the dog collar as Cody so fondly referred to it as, but this time he couldn’t bring himself to do it. He couldn’t risk someone seeing him, knowing a priest was confessing to these things.

No one would be in the confessional at this time, but he figured a priest would come out at some point. For the time being, he sat down in a pew before dropping the bar for them to kneel on. He had no idea just how long he was kneeling and praying, but eventually a Father walked in. 

Ted stood as soon as he saw him. “I need to make a confession.”

“Of course.” The Father looked at him, observing. “You look familiar.”

“Umm, I guess I just have one of those faces.”

The other priest just shrugged and took them to the confessional. Ted’s mind flashed to the last time he was in a confessional booth, and damn, it had been nice. 

Once they were both settled, Ted began, “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned.”

“And when was your last confession?”

“Yesterday,” Ted answered. 

Undoubtedly, the priest was taken aback. “Yesterday? Well, you move fast.” He joked. “Tell me, what are you confessing?”

“I had lust in my heart, and I acted on it. With my best friend. Cody.”

It wasn’t often he had confessions of lust come through his door. Someone was generally quite familiar with the words of God when they come in confessing to lust. “You weren’t forced into it?”

“No, Father. He came to visit me and I had no idea he was coming. He talks non-stop about his antics, and he winds up telling me in confession…” Ted stopped instantly when he let that slip. Shit. This was not good. 

“In confession?”

“I won’t tell you that part, as I’m sure you can figure out what he told me, and, well… confessions are meant to be kept confidential.”

“You could be stripped of your priesthood.”

“That’s why I came to confess.”

“Did you break your vow of celibacy?”

“No. He doesn’t know that I’m doing this, that I’m confessing. It would break his heart to know that I’m here. He doesn’t believe that what he’s doing is a sin, or that what we did together was a sin.”

“I noticed you only said the lust you felt was the sin. Do you not believe that homosexuality is a sin, as well?”

“He’s been my best friend since I was a kid, and told me that he was gay when he was 16. There’s no way that I could think homosexuality was a sin, not when I see him and know that he’s no worse off a person simply because he likes men.”

“Do you feel guilty?”

“I shouldn’t, I know I shouldn’t, because, while I’ve never told anyone this before, I’ve wanted him for so long. I told him when I was 18 that I wanted to join the clergy, and if I were to be honest, my desire for him was one of the reasons I joined. I had to learn how to control myself. As for feeling guilty about what we did yesterday… I think I feel worse about _where_ it happened more so than what we did.”

Curiosity had gotten the better of the other priest. Really, it was no secret that they enjoyed listening to other’s deepest and darkest secrets. They wanted to milk it for everything it was worth. “And where did this… incident… happen, exactly?”

“Umm, I’m not sure if that’s supposed to stay confidential, as well.”

“No.”

“Yeah…”

“Do you feel better now that you’ve told all this to me?”

“I think I feel worse,” Ted admitted. 

“Did you want me to absolve you still?”

“I don’t think so.”

“One of these days, you’ll have to choose between God and your Cody fella.”

“I can’t leave the clergy. I was meant to do this. I know I was; this is my calling.”

“You can’t continue harbouring lustful feelings for another man. The longer you keep this going, the harder it will be for you to focus on your life as a Father.”

“It was nice talking to you,” Ted said, cutting the other man off before he could go on any longer about Ted having to make a choice between the two men he loved most in the world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That night during the show, Randy cut a promo absolutely ripping into Cody. They were really starting to set up their feud, the one that would end with Cody winning the title from Randy. “What makes you so much as think you’re even in my league? Because we were in a little group together? Well, The Legacy is a thing of the past, and it was a privilege you _never_ lived up to. Now you can’t even defeat the second rate talent they have running around here chasing after your Intercontinental title,” he said in reference to Cody’s match the previous week where he lost to the current top contender for his own belt, “and you expect to beat _me_ tonight in hopes of becoming number one contender?” Randy hoisted his title up higher on his shoulder as it slipped down slightly from the slick t-shirt. “You best take a good look at this belt now, because this is the closest you will _ever_ get to it.”

They didn’t see each other at all before the match went down, but Cody had seen the look of intensity in Randy’s eyes. He knew that look. That was the look that said “I fucking want you right now.”

When they finally _did_ meet in the ring, Cody was amazed the entire place didn’t erupt in a blaze from their evident sexual tension. Cody watched as Randy slowly walked down the ramp, his slick chest gleaming under the lights, his thighs… well, what was there to even _say_ about Randy’s thighs apart from that they’re pure perfection? Those tattooed arms looked amazing on him, and Cody didn’t even _like_ tattoos. Fuck, he had to get Randy and his flawless body out of his mind. He was with Teddy now.

But the longer their match went on, the more overtly sexual the two became. The first near fall consisted of Randy lying his back on Cody’s chest, while his left arm hooked a leg and his right arm slipped under Cody’s neck, cupping it, and oh so lightly stroking it. “What the fuck are you doing?” Cody muttered once they were standing up again.

“Having fun.”

Near fall after near fall went by, a touch here, a stroke there. One time Cody felt his hand graze over Randy’s cock, which instantly reacted to his touch, as he went for the pin. Simple holds oozed with sex, mere skin on skin contact was enough to get those two going.

Finally came the RKO. Or, rather, the blocked attempt at an RKO. Cody managed to set up the Cross Rhodes and drop Randy, but his cover left nothing to the imagination as he lay flush over Randy’s body, one of Randy’s legs thrown awkwardly to the side, and Cody made sure to grind himself against the body beneath him. The pinning position was nothing new for Cody, he had used it on many opponents before, but he didn’t have those sexual undertones with anyone. And no one else ever raised their hips up to get that extra bit of contact.

As soon as the ref’s hand hit the mat that third time, Cody stood from the pin to get his hand raised in victory. He stared down at Randy, whose eyes were boring straight through him. Fuck. 

Ted was in his apartment, sitting on his couch watching wrestling. His brother won his match, and he was absolutely thrilled for him. The show went on, matches and backstage segments passed. Randy came up on the screen, talking smack about Cody, and all he could think about was Cody telling him that those two had fucked before, and how Randy’s words were laced with sex. It wasn’t long after that that they were getting announced for the match, and he smiled without even realizing it as soon as he saw Cody the first time. 

The match got underway, and Ted didn’t know if it was him, now that he had this knowledge of Cody and Randy’s past together, but it seemed as though every move they were making was some bizarre sex show. No, it couldn’t just be him. It _couldn’t_ be. 

Ted captured his head in his hands as he continued to watch. Cody said that he wouldn’t be doing anything with Randy anymore. It was a show, it was all for show. That’s it, that’s all it was. Because Cody told him that he meant the world to him, Randy had just been convenient and easy… But did he see that right? Did Cody just graze Randy’s dick _intentionally_? 

At the pin, Ted’s mouth dropped. Jaw meet floor, floor meet jaw. Cody was… He… They practically put on a porno out there for the entire goddamn world to see. Teddy took a deep breath and said aloud, “It’s just a show.”

Backstage, a few minutes later, after another match, a camera was following Cody through the halls where he ran into Randy entering his locker room. “Hey, _Champ_ ,” Cody began. “That was a great match we had out there, wasn’t it?”

Randy steeled his jaw, clenching his teeth as Cody spoke and he said nothing in reply. 

“Now what’s that you were saying earlier? If I remember correctly it was something about me not being in your league. Isn’t that what it was?”

The jaw muscle continued to twitch as Randy’s eyes stared right at Cody.

“Let me try and figure that one out. Ok, so, I’m not in your league, never have been, according to you, and yet I beat you tonight to become number one contender for that nice lookin’ belt of yours.” Cody reached his hand out and ran his fingers down the metal surface, staring right at Randy, wetting his lips with the tip of his tongue out of pure instinct. His eyes flickered briefly to the belt before going right back to Randy. “Something doesn’t add up.”

Randy finally breaks the silence, “Tonight was nothing but a fluke. You and I both know that when the match counts for something, you won’t man up. Why don’t you try back in a couple years?”

Cody paused. He knew what he was supposed to say, but all he could think of was when Randy said that to him all those years ago before they fucked for the first time.

Randy was having the same thought. He remembered telling Cody to come back to him when he was older… So he figured this was just what Cody was thinking. “You come to your senses and agree with me?” he covered.

“No, I don’t think so. I look forward to kicking your ass again in a couple weeks,” he finished with a smirk.

Looking at that smirk, god, Randy wanted to smack it off his face… And then kiss it better. But that would have to wait for those fucking cameras to turn the fuck off. 

Once the cameras were turned off and the camera men had left, Cody and Randy stood alone in the hallway. Randy was already in Cody’s personal space, but he leaned in even closer as he said, ever so bluntly, “Let’s fuck.”

Shit. Cody really had brought it on himself, though. All his actions out in the ring and, well, just now screamed sex. “I dunno… I’m not really up to it right now…”

“Bullshit. From the look of things, you’re up for it.” Randy moved in closer, dropping a hand to Cody’s dick.

Cody took a step back leaving a very confused and angry looking Randy. “Maybe we shouldn’t do this anymore,” he threw out there.

Randy glared and opened the door to his dressing room, pulling Cody in behind him and slamming the door shut. “Why the fuck not? Did Saint Theodore have some choice words for you regarding your sexual orientation?” he snipped back.

“No.” Actually, Teddy was behind him 100% when it came to his sexual orientation. And maybe one of these days Teddy would be behind him literally. “But you’re married. And Sam’s pregnant with your second.”

Quirking an eyebrow, Randy responded, “In case you forgot, I was married last week. Sam was also pregnant last month. And the month before that. And a couple of years ago she was pregnant for the first time, yet that never stopped you. So, what’s stopping you now?”

“I…”

Randy captured Cody’s mouth in a kiss, instantly snaking his tongue out into Cody’s mouth. Cody responded to the kiss, but only briefly. He broke it off and pushed on Randy’s shoulders before taking a step back himself.

“What the fuck?! Did you forget that for _years_ you begged me for this? Since you were fourteen years old, Cody, we’ve been doing this, and never once did you object to it; not when I had girlfriends and started dating Sam, when you had your boyfriends in high school, or whatever the fuck it was… We fucked the day before my wedding, we fucked when I told you Sam was pregnant… Give me one good reason why we shouldn’t fuck now, because I want you. I want to feel you inside me.” 

“Well, maybe it’s time that I got past that… Like, you said, it’s been years. Maybe it’s time we _both_ moved on. Don’t you ever feel bad for your family with you fucking around like this?”

“Since when did you become so concerned for my family? What’s with you, Cody?”

Could he tell Randy what was actually going on? How could he possibly say “Oh, well, the real reason I don’t want to sleep with you today is because I’m with Teddy. I mean, I ground against him in a confessional booth and sucked him off, but that’s it. We can’t do anything else, and I’ll probably never get laid ever again, but I finally got Teddy, just a little bit of him, and I love him more than you’ll ever know,” to someone like Randy, who had seemingly never felt an ounce of love for someone other than himself in his life.

So instead he put on his smirk and kissed Randy. “Just pushing your buttons… I like getting you riled up.”

Randy’s hands were all over Cody, up his back, down his trunks, over his neck; anywhere and everywhere was fair game. Cody was the same way. He was touching Randy all over his torso, up his neck, finally settling on the back of his head. Their tongues clashed in a battle of dominance, and neither one would back down, only adding to the sheer sexual tension.

“Hotel. Right fucking _now_ ,” Randy growled.

His senses didn’t return to him during the frenzied drive back to the hotel. Goddamn, there was nothing like Randy’s touch. They both knew each other so well; they knew how to drive each other up the fucking wall. Some parts of Cody’s lust-rattled brain were screaming at him to stop. But those were very small parts of his brain, obviously, because he wasn’t stopping. As Randy drove, Cody rushed to release Randy from his confines. 

Randy reached down and slid the chair back another notch, giving Cody some extra room. Cody opened his mouth wide, taking Randy’s dick into his mouth, straight to the back of his throat, all in one go. He suctioned his mouth in around Randy, learning every line and vein over again. After a few small draws up, Cody picked up the pace, bobbing his head up and down as Randy’s hips jerk up and his foot presses down on the gas.

Cody’s head continued its up and down path while Randy fought to keep his eyes on the road. One of Cody’s hands was resting on Randy’s leg while the other had a strong hold on his hip. Randy had his left hand on the steering wheel and his right was firmly planted on Cody’s head; he eased up when Cody raised his head, but he all but forced Cody’s head back down onto him. 

He was on the edge for the last leg of the car trip, which hadn’t lasted as long as it normally would have considering the speeds at which they were traveling. Still, Cody knew exactly the right time to slow down or back off completely to keep Randy going for as long as he wanted. And Cody apparently wanted it to continue in the hotel room.

Randy hadn’t even shut off the car’s engine before Cody was off of him and saying, “Out of the fucking car _now_.” 

They didn’t even bother with their bags; that only ate up their precious time. 

‘What the fuck are you doing?!’ Cody’s brain screamed at him. ‘What the fuck is taking you so long?!’ the rest of his lust crazed body was shouting. 

The two of them rushed back to their room. Yeah, they still roomed together even though they were both big names, there was just something nice about staying with someone, especially when you enjoyed their company. And the sex was good. And with those two, the sex was _always_ good, beyond good, amazing, mind blowing… Intense.

It was no different that night. They locked lips once again in the elevator and once behind the closed door of their room, instantly began stripping off their clothing. Neither one cared where it landed, because all they wanted in that moment was the other. 

“Still wanna feel me inside you?” Cody asked as he stepped out of the sweats he threw on before running into Randy backstage. 

“Yesssss,” Randy hissed, crawling up the bed until his head hit the pillows. 

Cody met him up there, claiming Randy’s mouth with his own. He reached to the side table and opened the drawer, pulling out the lube he knew Randy would put there. 

Sitting back on the balls of his feet, Cody opened it and squirted some into his hand. 

“Goddamn, hurry up. I need you _now_ ,” Randy pleaded. He had been wanting this since their match together. The pin fall was what solidified it for him, with Cody practically _telling_ him that he wanted to fuck him.

Cody slid a single finger inside of Randy, but it’s not long before Randy’s saying, “Fuck that, want _you_.”

Giving a nod, Cody rolled over a second time and grabbed a condom from the same drawer. He knew Randy’s body, and knew that he can take it like that, so unprepared. And the tighter ring of muscle feels so good around Cody’s dick. He rolled on the condom before picking up Randy’s legs and hoisting them over his ever broadening shoulders. 

Randy already had his eyes screwed shut, awaiting the painful entrance. He didn’t scream or cry as Cody pushed forward, he simply bit on his hand. Hard. Hard enough to draw blood. He didn’t care, though, knowing that the pleasure that was soon to come would be payment enough for the coppery taste of his own blood. 

As the minutes went by, the pain abated and was replaced by sheer pleasure. The feel of Cody’s dick inside him was always enough to get him going, since he didn’t let it happen too often. But, fuck if Cody didn’t feel amazing. They never lost a beat, those two.

Randy was shouting obscenities left and right, telling Cody to fuck him harder, that he felt so fucking good; anything that came to his mind he said. 

Cody didn’t say a whole lot. Especially after he nearly slipped. “Oh, fuuuuck, T,” he began, nearly moaning out Ted’s name in the heat of the moment. He instantly covered by saying, “too good, Randy, fuck, you feel too good around me. No one feels like you do.” 

After the sex, the pair took showers and flipped on the TV as they sat in bed together. “So, how was your visit with Saint Teddy?”

“Do you have to call him that?”

Randy smirked and continued, “What, are you saying he’s not a saint?”

“Not at all…” Cody answered. He sighed, knowing at that moment that it was a bad idea to tell Teddy about his feelings. Even though Ted told him that he knew, it didn’t matter. Ted _should_ be a saint. He shouldn’t be… shouldn’t be corrupting him like he was. “Shit!”

Randy raised his eyebrow at Cody’s sudden expletive. “What’s up?”

Cody’s head dropped back against the wooden headboard and he let out a long, frustrated sigh. “I’m fucked, Randy…” He rolled his head in Randy’s direction, looking him right in the eye. “I fucked up.”

“How?”

“Everything. I told Teddy _everything_. Told him that I’ve had a crush on him since forever. He said that he knew.”

Randy was really interested now. He didn’t think Cody would ever spill the beans to Ted. “He knew?”

“Yeah…”

“And then what?”

Cody rubbed his face with the palms of his hands, not sure how much he should tell Randy. Fuck it, he always told Randy everything. “I sucked him off in the confessional.”

Randy laughed. God, what kind of bullshit did Cody try to feed him? Teddy wouldn’t let Cody suck him off anywhere, much less in a church confessional. “Come on, man, what _really_ happened?” 

“What makes you think I wasn’t telling you what really happened?”

“There’s no fucking _way_ Saint Theodore would let you blow him, especially not in his precious church. Come on, tell me what happened once you told Teddy that you’ve wanted to fuck him since you were a teenager.”

“That WAS what happened!” Cody shouted at him. “He told me that he knew, and felt the same fucking way. Then I told him to let me into his side of the confessional, and when he did, I kissed him. I kissed him and then I blew him and… Oh, it felt so good. But I fucked up… I told him that… I said I wouldn’t sleep around, I told him _this morning_ that I wouldn’t sleep with you.”

“Why did you, then? What ever happened to just say no?”

“I DID say no!”

“Well, how come when I asked you what was with you, you didn’t just tell me what happened?! How come you waited until _after_ we had sex to say anything about it?”

“Fuck, I don’t know… This morning when I left from Teddy’s he asked if I was still messing around with you, and I told him the truth. He asked if I was done with you because he couldn’t give me everything that I needed, and I told him that he was all I needed. And now here we are. Look at me! I can’t even go a day without going back on my word to him!”

“He’s got a point, though, doesn’t he? He can’t give you everything you need,” Randy said, scooting closer and resting a hand on Cody’s bare leg.

“I shouldn’t _need_ to have my dick in someone’s ass to be happy with them.”

“You’ve been fucking around with guys since you were fourteen, I don’t think it’d be that easy to change your oh so sinful ways overnight. Besides, he doesn’t have to know about this.”

“He doesn’t? Really, Randy, you think I’m not gonna tell him about this? Do you know how much it took for him to tell me his true feelings?”

“What is there for you to say to him, Cody? Sorry, bud, but I fucked Randy last night after our match. Oh, and I’m sorry if you saw that match, too, because we were practically fucking during that.”

“It’s a start. Do I really have such little control over myself? Just look at Ted… If I hadn’t said anything to him, he would have continued to live his celibate life, totally content with everything he had going.”

“You shouldn’t put everything into stock with Teddy.”

“But I _want_ to. I want Teddy.”

“You can’t just be content in having Teddy as your best friend? You need more from him, too? What, is it true love, the man you’ve always been waiting for?”

“Shit, Randy, you know I’ve always wanted him! I don’t know if it’s love or what the fuck it actually is, but I can’t tell you how good it feels knowing that he thinks the same way about me.”

“Right, because he’s been having sexual fantasies about you since you were fourteen. I’m sure that’s just what it is…”

“Just because he never would have acted on them doesn’t mean he doesn’t have them. God, I’m such a fuck up. I just ruined Ted’s life.”

“And that’s why you don’t tell him,” Randy reasoned.

“But it’s not just the sex with you, it’s everything. It’s my telling him that I wanted him that really fucked him over. What was I _thinking_?! I need to learn to keep my mouth shut. How did I ever think that saying something to him would be beneficial for either one of us? I royally fucked him over, and I just gave up sex… Maybe I should tell him to forget we ever did anything.”

“Here’s an idea: Teddy leaves the ministry.”

“He _can’t_ , Randy. He already told me that he was chosen as a priest.”

“You know that’s bullshit. Don’t tell me otherwise. Bull fuckin’ shit. He expects you to give up your life for him, yet he won’t give up God for you, and he supposedly cares about you? What the fuck kind of relationship can you two even have?!”

“I don’t know, Randy, but we can at least _try_.”

“Yeah, well, you’re doing a damn fine job of trying, aren’t you?”

“Shut the fuck up, man, I _know_ I fucked everything up, there’s no need to rub it in my face again and again.”

“I also like how you’re really trying to get away from me and my corrupting ways,” Randy said as he found himself leaning against Cody’s shoulder. 

“Shit…” Cody sighed. He liked the feel of Randy leaning against him. Randy was the only person he ever sat with after and talked to. Randy was the only person he would snuggle up to or let snuggle up to him. Randy was the only person he would actually fall asleep with and wake up next to in the morning. After that first time when Cody instantly kicked Randy out of his bed, he had been waiting for a time when they could actually stay together, and once Cody was in OVW, moving his way up to the WWE, he knew he’d finally have that chance. 

And now, Cody realized, he wouldn’t have that with anyone. He couldn’t just… Just give up Randy like that simply because somewhere Ted was waiting for him, because even when he _did_ get back to Ted, they couldn’t do this. Sure, they could kiss and sleep in the same bed (if Ted would even agree to that), but that was it. He couldn’t even be guaranteed that he’d have someone to wake up with. Cody and Randy _always_ came back to each other. 

Randy sat up and wrapped an arm around Cody, pulling him in close. “You gotta figure this one out for yourself, man. I know you’ve always had a thing for Saint Teddy, but I don’t see how this is good for either of you. Don’t give me that look; I know you’re thinking the same thing I am. But you’ll go crazy if you have to go for God knows how long without sex, and just think of the kind of trouble Ted could get into if you two get found out. Do you want to be the one responsible for getting him kicked out of the church?”

“No. God no, I don’t want him to get into shit because of me. Fuck me… Don’t _even_ go there,” Cody said before Randy could make any kind of comment.

“So, what are you gonna do about it?”

“I guess I have to talk to him again…”

“Because talking to him worked out so well the first time.” 

“Just shut up. It’s not like you’re any better.”

“How’s that?”

“Umm, well, there’s the fact that you’re married,” Cody pointed out. “I don’t understand why you got married in the first place if you were just gonna screw around behind her back?”

“I don’t know. I guess I thought she might help me change my ways.”

“Sam’s a nice woman, you know that. You shouldn’t do this to her.”

“You’re not exactly an innocent party in all of this.”

“I get that. Trust me, I get that. But maybe it’s time we both just grew the fuck up.”

Not another word was spoken that night between the two men. Shit, Randy was 30 years old with one kid and another on the way, and he was still fucking around with men and women alike while his wife sat at home, loving him and caring for their children. And Cody, well, he knew he’d never get married, but how long could he keep it up? How long could he keep up this lifestyle? How much longer would it be before it wasn’t even about companionship, but solely about _sex_? Had he already passed that point?

The next morning, they didn’t bring up their discussion from last night. They just knew they had a lot to think about.

Cody picked up his phone and dialed in Ted’s number. 

“Hey, Cody,” Ted answered.

“Hey. What are you doing Wednesday?” Cody asked before Ted could say anything else.

“Moving my belongings into the rectory. Why?”

“Well, I figured since we were moving east on the tour and I have Wednesday off…”

“Are you coming to visit again? Twice in one week? To what do I owe this honour?”

“Just wanted to see you again is all.”

“Did you have anything you need to tell me?”

“If there is, it’ll be better said face to face.”

“Is it bad?”

“Did you watch the match last night?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye,” Cody said, hanging up so Ted couldn’t reply. 

“Bye,” Ted muttered into the dial tone. What was it Cody had to tell him? Was he hurt? Did something go wrong during the match? Was it something about Randy? God, why couldn’t he have said something over the phone, relieve him of some stress?

The entire next day, Cody was thinking about what he was going to say to Ted. But even though they each had their minds on other things, Cody and Randy couldn’t help but be drawn towards each other. Cody tried to fight the urge to close in on Randy when he came out to interrupt Randy’s match, but he couldn’t control himself. Each step only intensified the feelings between them. 

Cody was soon at ringside, keeping his eyes on Randy the entire time. Randy constantly glanced over his shoulder, making eye contact each time. Behind the ref’s back, Cody pulled the rope down, sending Randy to the floor, which caught the ref’s attention. Unable to make any moves, they continued their stare down. And then Cody smirked as he stepped away from the prone body.

He stayed at ringside through the whole match in which Randy won, arm raised high, after an RKO on John Morrison. Cody raised an eyebrow and backed away, never taking his eyes off of Randy. 

Backstage after the untelevised match, the two found themselves face to face once again. “I’m going to talk to Teddy tomorrow,” Cody informed him.

“That’s nice.” 

They both wanted it; there was no way to deny the underlying sexual tension between them. So, neither of them were at all surprised when they found themselves in the locker room, Cody spun around towards the wall, trunks pulled down just enough to expose his ass, with Randy pounding into him.

“It’s never gonna end between us, is it?” Cody asked as he sat on a bench once he had his trunks pulled up. “As much as we want it to stop, we don’t want to end it even more.”

“Is that what you’re gonna tell Teddy?”

“Shit, I don’t know. I really don’t know, man. I can’t keep doing this with you, though, that I do know. It’s so fucked up, this entire situation.”

“And that’s why you should have just kept on doing exactly what you were doing.”

“Doesn’t a life of sex with stranger after stranger, me and your wife get tiring after a while?”

“Hasn’t yet. Look, you just said yourself that you don’t see this ending between us, so why not tell that to Ted?”

“Because I want _something_ with him.”

“But you can’t have _anything_ with him!” Randy fired back. “You know something is gonna happen to fuck up what you have going on with Teddy, whatever the fuck that is.”

“I don’t want to fuck up his life.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next day Cody had off and he finally had his chance to see Ted. Just like he promised, Ted had started moving his things into the rectory with the other priests. However, as soon as he saw Cody walking up from the parking lot to the church, he headed outside. 

Cody had a small, sad smile on his face as he saw Ted emerging from the church. “Hey,” he said in greeting.

“Hey. Long time, no see. What’s going on?” Ted cut right to the chase. He knew something had to be up for Cody to come over and see him like this.

“Is anyone else around right now?” 

Ted turned a wary eye to Cody. Why should it matter if someone else was around? “You’re not going to… do anything… are you?”

“I had sex with Randy.”

“What?”

“Monday night after the match me and Randy fucked.” Cody took a breath during Ted’s stunned silence and continued, “Last night, as well. Things got pretty heated between us and it just… It just happened. I felt like shit after, though.”

After, now that was an interesting word. Felt like shit _after_ the sex. “Ok, so you felt bad after. How about during?”

“What?” Cody asked, not expecting that from Ted. 

“I asked how you felt _during_ the sex. Not after, not before, but during.”

“It was great, I’m not gonna lie to you. But I almost said your name,” Cody told him as his voice dropped to a whisper.

Ted grabbed hold of Cody’s shoulder and walked him away from the church where one of his colleagues could potentially hear what was being discussed, and these were strictly private matters. “Are you serious?”

“Yes! Damn, Teddy, I’m so fucking _confused_ , and I’m so sorry.”

“God forgives you.”

Cody was slightly taken aback by the comment. _God_ forgives him? Why would Teddy jump straight to God? “Good for Him. But what about _you_?”

“Look around, Cody; it’s my job to forgive.”

“No, I’m not asking if Father Theodore Marvin DiBiase, Jr. can forgive me, I’m asking if you, Teddy, can forgive me.”

“Forgive you for sleeping with someone who can actually give you everything you want and need? I can,” Ted answered him. He was completely honest in his answer, as well. He did forgive Cody, because, really, what had Cody done wrong? Wasn’t he the strange one, after all? He was willingly denying his body of its wants and needs to fulfill his duties to God, the Big Man in the Sky, a being who may or may not actually exist. 

“But I told you that same morning that I was done…”

“People do worse things. Besides, the more I look at us, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot these past couple days, the more I know that nothing can happen between us. We both know it. I can’t risk my livelihood for something that’s not a guarantee. Look, Cody, I told you last time that I really did want you, but I don’t want to be just another notch on your belt.”

“Shit, Teddy, you could never be just another meaningless, nameless fuck. You’re not just another conquest.”

“But you have to know where I’m coming from, right?”

“Oh, I do. And I can’t help but think about what would happen to you if someone found out what happened. Then I know that it was my fault because I was a fucking dumbass who couldn’t keep his mouth shut.”

“No, don’t say that. You’re not the type to keep your feelings bottled up inside you, especially strong ones, at least, if you feel it anything like I do, they’re strong feelings.”

“Shit, Ted, you just said that we had to stop this, and now you’re telling me that you have these feelings for me; I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here.”

“Something’s gonna give. How would you feel if I told you that I went to confession the day you left?”

“You mean you wound up going after all?”

“Don’t you see, Cody, this is how it’ll end up every. Single. Time. I’ll run to confession, you’ll run to Randy. I think we should recognize that what happened was a one time thing.”

“But you said you wanted—”

“I _do_. Which is _why_ it can’t ever happen again.” Ted had already decided. He had had time to think about what they did together, and knew that at this point in time, having just been ordained, he couldn’t test the waters. He wanted to say fuck the rules, fuck the priesthood, fuck God, all so he could fuck Cody, but he knew that he’d never be able to. He’d never be able to live with himself and the guilt that he had betrayed his word to God. He had known that eventually he would have to decide between God and Cody. Of course, with Cody away, it made the choosing God thing a hell of a lot easier. But God it had to be.

“Why can’t it happen again? You told me that you were ok with this, that you wouldn’t object to doing things again just days ago.”

“I wouldn’t, and therein lies the problem. You know that I care about you more than anyone else in this world; I hope you know that.”

“But even then—”

“Even then I can’t give up my life. What would I do, Cody? I’d be an excommunicated priest who got kicked out of the clergy because I was in a relationship with another man. Then what would I do? I couldn’t continue living here, not where people’s views are so conservative. I’m not trained in anything else; I’ve dedicated my life to this. This,” Ted said, gesturing around to his surroundings, ending by pointing directly at the rectory and church, “is my life.”

“I’ll never be able to get past what we did two days ago. Won’t be forgetting that moment any time soon, considering I’ve wanted that to happen for _years_.”

“And I don’t want you to. I don’t want to forget, either. I want to take that memory with me everywhere I go, so I know just what I lost.”

“Knowing what you lost still isn’t enough to make you want this to happen between us?”

Ted dropped his gaze to the ground, kicking a rock with his shoe. He glanced back up, a sad, somber look on his face, as he looks into Cody’s eyes. Leaning forward, Ted places a kiss on Cody’s unexpecting lips. It was just a light touch, but it conveyed a lot. When he pulled back, he couldn’t fight it, and he pulled Cody into a hug. With his mouth right next to Cody’s ear, he whispered, “I love you.”

Cody could say nothing in reply. He honestly had no idea what to do. He didn’t know if he just lost his best friend for good or if, maybe, they could still have a real more than friendship, but certainly not just sex relationship further down the road. 

“Don’t worry, you’re not getting rid of me this easily,” Ted said as he pulled apart from the hug. “I expect you to keep on being yourself, ok?”

“Ok.” He placed his hands on Ted’s shoulders and found himself leaning in towards Ted’s ear as he whispered, “You don’t know how bad I wanna sin with you right now.”

“Good to know you haven’t lost that Cody Runnels sense of tact.”

“Never.”

“Just like you’ll never lose me. Got that?”

Cody gave Ted a small smile and replied, “Got it.”

With that, Ted turned back towards the rectory and began his walk to his new home. He heard footsteps following to catch up to him and when he turned to the side he was face to face with Cody once again. “Yeah?”

“Just thought I’d ask if my best friend would like some help moving. I am the IC champ, ya know, I think I can help with some of that heavy lifting.”

Ted gave him a true, bright smile. “Yeah, I’d like that a lot. Plus you still have to get my couch. Just promise me one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“You don’t ever have sex on it. Unless it’s with me,” Ted threw out there.

“Got it. Never have sex on the couch.”

“And I’m tellin’ ya, if you come to me confessing that you _did_ have sex on the couch, there will be no forgiveness thrown your way.”

“Yes, Father,” Cody replied, bumping into Ted’s shoulder as they continued their walk, a sense of understanding between the pair that now was just not the right time for _them_ , but each had a glimmer of hope that perhaps someday, they would have their chance.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Takes place a year after the first part of Our Father. Cody has changed his ways, cleaned up his act... but Ted is still as straight laced as ever...

It had been over a _year_ since Cody Runnels had a chance to first taste that forbidden fruit otherwise known as Ted DiBiase. _Father_ Ted DiBiase. In the time that passed since, he visited Ted just a handful of times. And every time that he went to visit, they _never_ had time alone, but he’d since been introduced to every other father living in the rectory alongside Ted. 

For Ted, these visits were an extremely difficult time. Each time Cody stood before him, that strong feeling of lust and love worked its way into his body, and he was powerless to do anything against it. No matter how hard he prayed, no matter how many rosaries he did, no matter how many Hail Marys he said, no matter how many confessions he went to, he could not shake that feeling. And it only seemed to get stronger every time he saw Cody. 

For Cody, the visits were nothing short of frustrating. He knew that he said he could go without the physical aspect of a relationship, just so long as he knew Ted was his… but it was damn hard. Now, he and Randy worked together for a short while after he won the World Heavyweight Championship from the older man, but it had been a matter of months since that feud ended. At least for the time being. However, it had been even longer since the two of them last fucked. Cody was _determined_ to be as faithful to Ted as Ted was to him. However, sometimes he felt as though he was being cheated on with God. Though that feeling he should have been expecting. 

The first time that he visited, he was doing a show a few hours away the following day. That visit, he managed to get Ted alone in his room, and he swore that he would never forget the kiss that they shared. It was filled with need, with love, with passion. 

And that was the _only_ time that they’d kissed since. 

After that visit, Ted insisted that he meet all the Fathers, and there was always someone else around the rectory. It was as if Ted wanted them around, because Cody couldn’t make a move otherwise. 

When Ted celebrated his first full year as an ordained priest, all he could think about were the events of that first day. His parents had been so proud… and he’d been so excited to see Cody there. Cody, his oldest friend in the world, came to see him perform a church service. Cody was actually _in a church_. And it was all because of him. Then the day had progressed, one thing to another, leading Cody to confess to him his truest feelings. Which then led to Ted going against all his beliefs as he allowed Cody to actually… to actually take him into his mouth. In the _confessional_ of all places. He still couldn’t believe he allowed that to happen.

However… that day was both the best and worst day of his life. 

So now when Cody paid him a visit, he tried everything in his power to keep Cody at bay. He couldn’t allow himself to be alone with him, because he felt that he simply wasn’t strong enough to resist him. 

It was safest for them both. 

And now there was yet another visit upcoming. Cody had a rare few days off in a row, so instead of going back to Georgia to go see his own family, he was going to see Ted. It was really getting to be a bit much. He could see that Cody was getting frustrated by how much he seemed to regress in their little relationship, if one could even call it that, but he didn’t know what else to do… because if they progressed in their relationship, then he’d have completely broken his vow of celibacy as opposed to just… bending the rules about it. 

The days seemed to pass by so quickly, despite Ted’s nerves building up day by day. It had been so long since he’d seen Cody in person. Faithfully, he watched Cody on Raw each and every week. That was a habit he never did break, even after he found out that Cody and Randy were fucking one another. Since then, Cody swore to him that they stopped, that he hadn’t touched anyone else. 

That only seemed to make things worse in Ted’s mind. Cody had completely changed his lifestyle _for him_. But now that Cody had told him that, now that he knew Cody wasn’t in any sort of sexual relationship with anyone, it seemed to put all the more pressure on him. 

Because he _couldn’t_ please Cody in that manner. 

It was hard enough not pleasing himself in that manner. Whenever he spoke to Cody, or saw the man on television, he was brought back to that confessional, to how good it felt to have Cody’s lips around his cock. And it made him want more. 

Now that was a dangerous thought. 

Ted moved about the rectory, needing to keep himself busy. Otherwise his mind would float back to Cody. That’s where his mind always went whenever he was idle. Or knelt in prayer. So he kept moving. He tidied things up that didn’t even need tidying. He made his bed countless times, constantly untucking the sheets simply to retuck them, continually telling himself that it wasn’t made quite right. 

Even as he dressed for the evening mass he’d be performing, he wondered how it’d feel to have Cody remove every garment from his body, starting from his robes and working all the way down to his underwear. 

Shit. 

Finally, when the day of Cody’s visit arrived, Ted honestly didn’t know if he could handle seeing the man again without doing something against his religious code, because he knew that he wanted to. He wanted to so many times in the past. Even _before_ he became a priest, or knew for sure that he wanted to become one. Just being around Cody did things to him, and while at the time he didn’t know quite why it was happening, he knew that nothing good could come of it. It was a dangerous road to travel, that was for sure. 

So he became a priest. 

But those urges lingered. 

There was never anyone else in the world who made him feel that way. Not like he’d ever been with anyone else in the ways he’d been with Cody, but seeing as just being in a room with him, or hearing his voice made his stomach feel as though a whole swarm of butterflies were living inside, made him sure that no one else ever could make him feel like that. 

Cody was his soul mate. He couldn’t deny that any longer. But he _wanted_ his soul to belong to God, not anyone else, and his profession called for his whole being, mind, body _and_ soul belonging to God. 

Upon arriving at the church, Cody parked his rental car, killing the engine before exiting the car. However, he didn’t approach either the church or the rectory. He simply leaned against the car and observed. It was a Wednesday afternoon, so there weren’t many people milling about. But he knew Ted would be inside one of the two buildings that stood before him. 

The front doors of the church opened up, and one of the priests walked through, looking down as he took the steps. Turning to his right, he made his way to the gardens that adorned the side of the church, since it was his turn to do the watering. 

Cody couldn’t help but smile as he saw Ted fiddling with the hose, not even noticing that he was there. Soon enough Ted managed to get the hose going, and he headed over to begin watering the flowers. That’s when he swore that he felt a pair of eyes watching him. 

When he met Cody’s eyes, he smiled, a reaction that just came naturally whenever Cody was near. “Hey, don’t drown them,” Cody said as he began walking over. 

“Oh, right,” Ted muttered, moving the hose off the poor morning glory he soaked with the hose as he hadn’t even thought of anything else aside from the fact that, once more, Cody was there with him. 

“How’s the good Father doing today?” Cody asked.

“Fine, thank you. How was your flight?” Ted asked in return. He wanted to keep conversation neutral. 

“Got here alive, didn’t I?” Cody answered. He then smirked, always looking for a way to get Ted riled up. “Also found this hot ass guy on the plane, so I fucked him in the bathroom. Tight fit, in more ways than one, if ya know what I mean, but there’s nothin’ quite like fucking at over thirty thousand feet in the air.”

Ted’s eyes were wide, and he probably would have dropped the hose in shock if he wasn’t holding it in a death grip. He was also speechless. He thought that… that Cody was… he thought Cody was done doing things like that. Then to go and speak so casually about it? In front of the man that he claimed to love? “I— Well, that’s… that’s nice,” he choked out. 

“Teddy… I’m kidding.”

“Oh, thank the Lord,” Ted said with a sigh of relief. 

Until Cody replied with, “He fucked me.”

“Cody!” Ted shouted, that hurt feeling returning once more. 

“Teddy, calm down. You _know_ I wouldn’t do that to you, right? But you can’t expect me to give up my crude sense of humour just because I wanna fuck a priest now, right?” he asked. “I mean, I wanted to fuck you _before_ you were a priest, too, but you get my point,” he then added. 

Once again, Ted’s eyes grew wide, but it was for a completely different reason this time. “Keep your voice down, please,” Ted said softly. He didn’t want people hearing that, hearing the true nature of Cody’s feelings for him. Because that might, in turn, make people see the true nature of Ted’s feelings for Cody. 

Cody held his hands up defensively at that. “Sorry, didn’t even think about what I was saying. You know how I am. Just say what I think, no filter.” He really hadn’t meant to offend Ted in any way. That was the last thing that he wanted. 

“It’s ok… I just, well, I get a little nervous since…” he trailed off and looked around the premises, as well as up to the sky. 

“I’m sorry, really.”

Once again, Ted assured him that it was ok. “Just try and think about what you’re saying… especially in front of the others.”

“I will. Now,” he began, glancing down at the flowers again, “I think you’re in the process of drowning them again.”

“Shit,” Ted muttered. 

“You do this often?” Cody then asked, changing the subject off them and back to the plants. 

“Often enough. But obviously I’ve never had you here with me when I do, since I really do know how to go about watering plants. I’m just a bit distracted here today, that’s all,” he answered. 

“Well, yeah, I am a good distraction, I know. I mean, just look at me. How can a person not be completely taken aback by my dashing good looks?”

Ted quirked a smile at that. “I couldn’t tell ya.” He soon finished watering the plants, Cody watching him the entire time. Once he twisted the nozzle on the hose to turn off the stream of water, as he was walking to put the hose back, he asked, “So, um, what did you want to do now that you’re here?” 

“Whatever,” Cody answered. “I’d give you the real answer, but I seem to get shot down every time I do, so…”

“What do you mean by the real answer?” Ted asked at Cody’s response. “If there’s something you had in mind, you can tell me.”

“Never mind,” Cody said with a slight shake of his head. Every time in the past when he’d tried to get something going between them, he was shot down. Not that he minded, because he _knew_ Ted’s lifestyle spoke out against these actions (with anyone, not just because he was a man), but it was frustrating at times. He hadn’t had sex with anyone in months, pushing a year, and that was tough. “We’ll do whatever you want.”

“You hungry?” Ted asked. 

“I just spent hours on a plane with no food whatsoever. Take a guess,” Cody replied.

“Anywhere you’d like to go, then?”

“Wherever you’d like to go. You’re the one that knows all the good little restaurants around here,” he answered. 

“You’ve been here enough over the last year. You gotta have a favourite place to go by now.”

“I may, but how am I supposed to know if there’s anywhere that’s better unless we go there?” Cody reasoned. He loved when Ted showed off his home town to him, told him little bits of history about the buildings as they passed. But, damn, if he wouldn’t love to be holding the man’s hand as they walked through town… or even as they drove through town. That would have been a nice little perk, at least. 

“Ok, well, there’s this one place. It closed down last year after the owners put it up for sale, some couple owned it, but they ended up getting a divorce, then they couldn’t run the place anymore… Anyway,” Ted said as they began walking, Cody falling right into step next to him, “someone finally bought the place and it reopened a couple months back. Just haven’t had the chance to get over there yet.”

“So this’ll be both our first times there?”

“Yup,” Ted answered, brushing a bit of soil off his pants. How’d that even get there? he mused to himself. 

“Sounds good,” Cody said with a smile. “Who knows, maybe this could become our place. Like our date restaurant.” 

“Date?” Ted repeated, pausing in his step.

“Yes,” Cody replied, reaching out to adjust Ted’s little white dog collar he had tucked through his shirt collar. “Date.”

Ted didn’t know what to say to that. He’d never even thought of them going out to lunch together as a date… that made them sound so… so official. So real. 

“I haven’t been on a date since I was in high school,” Cody went on.

“Really?” Ted was pretty surprised about that, considering how many men Cody had gone through in his life. 

“Really. I was a junior in high school and I asked this girl out.”

“Wait, did you just say you asked a _girl_ out? This happened two years _after_ you first had sex with Randy?”

“Yes. Randy encouraged me on, told me to at least give a girl a shot. So I did. It didn’t really go so well. By the end of dinner, I knew she could tell that I wasn’t all that into her,” Cody recalled. 

“How’d you know that?” Ted asked. He could read people all day, could see their conflict or relief wash over them as they told him their confessions. Yet when it came to matters of the heart, the relationship side of things, he was never very good at picking up on that. 

“Because she told me that she had a friend who she knew had a thing for me. Her friend, who she said was really cute, a year older than us and was in amazing shape from playing on the soccer team.” Cody paused before meeting Ted’s eyes out of the corner of his own. “Her friend by the name of Jason.”

“No shit?” Ted asked. He couldn’t help but be amused by that. 

“No shit. Guess everyone had me pegged… Anyway, Jason was the last person I went on a date with. In fact, we were kind of a thing for a while. At least until he graduated and went off to college. Haven’t heard from him since.”

“How come you haven’t dated anyone since?” 

“You won’t like my answer,” Cody warned. 

“I found out you’ve been sleeping with Randy since you were fourteen, I think I can handle this,” Ted assured him. 

“If you’re sure… well, I figured it was just easier to fuck ‘em and move on than actually dating someone. So that’s what I did. Then when I got into the WWE, that life became even easier, since we go from city to city. Never have to see them again.”

“You know… I wish I could have been there for you,” Ted then confessed softly. “I wish that could have been me.”

“Really, Teddy? It could have been, you know. God knows I wanted it to be you… It still can be,” he added.

“We’re here,” Ted said, hearing but choosing not to say anything about Cody’s last comment, much to the younger man’s disappointment. 

The new owner looked up as the doorbell dinged, then smiled as the pair walked in. “Father DiBiase,” she greeted, “how are you today?” She was a patron of Ted’s church, attended mass every Sunday morning. 

“I’m doing quite well, thank you,” he answered. “How’re you? Business good here?” he asked. 

“It sure is. People seemed pretty eager to have this place reopened. Gotta say, I was pretty nervous when I got into the business, but people ‘round here are so good. Already have regular customers comin’ in.”

“I was one of those people who couldn’t wait for the reopening,” Ted told her. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” he apologized. 

“Oh, don’t worry about it! You’re here now, right? Now let’s get you two seated, shall we? Didn’t mean to make you two stand around while I chattered on ‘n on. Follow me,” she said, grabbing two menus and bringing them over to a table right by the window. “I’ll have a server right with you. I hope you enjoy!” She left them to browse their menus as she headed back to the front of the restaurant. 

“You really do know everyone in this town, don’t you?” Cody asked.

“Close to it,” Ted replied, browsing the menu. “The ones that come to my church, anyway… which, to be honest, really is most everyone in the town.”

“She ever been to confession?” Cody then asked with a grin. 

“Cody!” Ted whispered harshly. “You know that I can’t answer that.”

“Fine, fine. Then I’ll just imagine the kind of things that she said to you.”

“She’s a very nice young woman, Cody, so any of the things you’re thinkin’ you should stop thinkin’ ‘em.”

“Give me a little credit, Teddy.”

“All I’m sayin’ is that I don’t know what kinda crazy thoughts go on in that mind of yours, so I’m just imagining the worst,” Ted told him.

“Teddy, I promise you… that I could imagine far worse things than you could. But I won’t. It must be strange, though.” He was cut off as the waitress came over and introduced herself as Eileen, and asked what they would like to drink. 

Once she left, Cody picked up his menu again, and continued to browse, wanting to make sure he was ready to order by the time she came back. 

“What must be strange?” Ted asked. Cody never finished his last thought, and now he was left hanging. 

“Oh. All I mean is that it must be strange to have these confessions coming in that need to remain between you and that person, but then you have to see that person each week, knowing all their dirty little secrets.”

“Well, to be honest, people don’t go to confession as much as they used to. It’s a dying phase, really, and only the older crowd or people who have really guilty consciences are the ones that come and seek confession,” Ted told him. 

The waitress then came back with their waters, setting them down before asking if they were ready. She quickly jotted down their orders and told them she would put that right in for them. Again, she walked off to her next table, leaving Ted and Cody to go back to their conversation. 

“That’s a lot of weight to carry, though, don’t you think?” 

“Comes with the territory. I knew what I was getting myself into. This is the life that I chose for myself, and this is the life that I’ll live.”

Bringing his thumb to his mouth, Cody began chewing at the nail, a habit it was trying to break (and his clear nail polish really did taste pretty disgusting), but he was nervous about his following question. “Did you ever consider having a life with me? Honestly, did you ever think of following your father’s footsteps?”

“Of course I did,” Ted answered right off the bat. “I thought about it all the time. It seemed so natural for me to get into the business, you know? I mean, look at you and Randy. Our own brothers. But this? This was the life that I wanted. We chose each other, God and I.”

Cody nodded. He knew that answer was coming, too. It was always about God. Please God before anyone else. “So you don’t ever regret it? Your decision?”

“No. I don’t. I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere else.”

“Not even with me?” Cody whispered. 

“Cody… there are two things that I could change about life as a Roman Catholic priest. The first would be that it would allow me to, if I ever had it happen to me, report murders, rapists, child molesters, the whole nine yards to the police should any of them confess such crimes to me. The second would be that it would allow relationships and marriages. Other religions allow marriage for their pastors and preachers and priests. And… and there are openly gay members of the clergy. That’s not unheard of. But even if I were openly gay, it wouldn’t matter, because I couldn’t ever…” he dropped his voice low as he whispered so only Cody could hear him, “make love to you the way that I so want to.”

“R-really? You… You do actually want to?” Cody asked. 

“Goodness yes. I want to. But I can’t. And I hate that.” He looked around, noticing that the tables near them were filling. “We’ll continue this later, ok?”

Cody nodded. Even he had enough tact to know that the middle of a restaurant wasn’t the right place to talk about such private matters, especially when it came to Ted. 

Their food arrived soon, anyway, and they kept their conversation sparse and as casual as they could make it. “So, how’s everything at work?” Ted asked as he cut into his chicken.

“It’s great. Still have my title, as I’m sure you know,” he answered. “They’re setting me up in a feud with John soon.”

“Cena?” Ted asked.

“One in the same,” Cody said. “I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been working with the top guys out there… Randy, Punk, now John? It’s like I’m living my dream right now,” he told him. I’ve had my title for months now and it really just set in recently that I _am_ one of the top guys.”

“Cody, you’re _the_ top guy right now.”

“It doesn’t seem possible. It seems like just yesterday Dad was hoisting me up to put me into a ring for the first time,” Cody reminisced. 

Ted smiled at him before popping some chicken into his mouth. “I remember my first time in the ring.”

“Hard thing to forget,” Cody said. 

Nodding, Ted agreed. “True enough. Back then I was thinking that I’d be doing that one day… that I’d be the one lacing up my boots to go fight the good fight, winning the Intercontinental Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship… For quite some time I was positive that that would be me.”

“When you were younger, you ever think about going out there and wrestling with me?” Cody asked him.

“Yup. Remember that one time we were backstage and we found those boxes in the trash?”

Cody grinned. “When we cut out and colored our own tag team titles?” he finished.

“And we went around telling everyone that we were the tag team champions.”

“ _Including_ the tag team champions,” Cody said with a chuckle. “I remember that day really well… I always thought it’d be you there with me carrying those titles… not your brother.”

“Yeah, I know… like I said before, I sometimes wish that was me.”

“I absolutely would have loved if it was you,” Cody told him. 

“I know.”

“I bet we would have had some great times together, you and me on the road three hundred days of the year… woulda been great.”

Ted gave him a rueful smile. “I bet it would have been, but… there’s nothing that can be done about it. I’ve made my decisions, you’ve made yours. You have a life on the road, and I have mine here.”

Cody kept silent after that, finishing up his meal. The waitress came around and brought their check, leaving it on the table as she cleared away the empty plates. “I got it,” Cody said, reaching for the check. Ted was already reaching for it, though, and their fingers touched atop the black checkbook. Ted pulled his hand away first. “That mean you do want me to take care of it?” Cody asked dryly. 

“No… no, I got it,” Ted replied.

“It’s fine. You are so graciously letting me stay with you, after all,” Cody said, going into his pocket for his wallet. 

“Cody…”

Cody stuck some cash into the book, enough for a nice sized tip, as well, and stood up. The waitress came back around and Cody said, “I’m all set.” He gave her a little smile and a nod before heading out. 

Ted followed, telling the waitress, “Have a nice day.” 

Once they got to the front, the new owner stopped them. “Did you enjoy your meal here?” she asked. 

“It was amazing. I can see why you wanted to open this place; your food is delicious,” he told her. “I will most definitely be back. I’ve got to head out now, but you have a nice day.”

“Thank you. You, as well, Father.”

After grabbing a mint and toothpick, Ted was out the door behind Cody. “You seem somewhat upset,” Ted muttered, opening the toothpick, shoving the plastic wrapper into a pocket. 

“Do I? Wonder why.”

“Tell me why.”

“Well, let’s see… first you tell me that you want to make love to me,” Cody began, and that already had Ted on edge. “Then you tell me that we have two very separate lives… and we do, but… but that’s why I’m _here_. To bring our lives together. And then you go and you jerk your hand away from mine when our fingers touched. Do you have any idea how that makes me feel?”

“I’m sorry! What am I supposed to do, Cody?”

“Laugh it off, maybe? Or maybe even let me take my hand away first…”

Ted turned his head and cast Cody a look out of the corner of his eye as they continued their walk back to the church. “Really? As if you’d have done that.”

“You never know. Believe it, or not, I do know how to respect boundaries.”

This time keeping his eyes forward, Ted muttered, “Well, you sure do know how to push mine.”

“It’s not like your flakey attitude helps that,” Cody retorted. 

They passed by an older man walking down the street, who greeted Ted, “Good afternoon, Father.”

Ted stopped to return the greeting, and the pair of them ended up chatting for a few minutes while Cody hung back a little. He watched the way Ted interacted with the man, and he had to admire it. It seemed Ted always had an ability to put a smile on anyone’s face just talking to them. 

“Will I see you again on Sunday?” Ted asked, and the man replied in the affirmative. Ted bid him a good day and the man finally continued along on his way. “Sorry about that.”

“No, don’t be… It’s just amazing to see you with other people.”

“What do you mean?” Ted asked. He was a well known, respected public figure in his community, one who was always open for a conversation. 

“I mean, the way people approach you and you’re so receptive to them, you listen to them… you can tell that you really do care.”

“That’s more than just my job, you know,” Ted replied. “Treat other as you would want them to treat you, it’s that simple.”

“So… the way you treat me is the way you’d want others to treat you?” Cody whispered.

Ted stopped walking completely, hand on Cody’s elbow to stop him, as well. “What?” he asked once Cody had turned to look at him face to face. 

“I haven’t even _kissed_ anyone in almost a year,” he said. “Ted… you say that you’re in love with me, but I can’t do anything with you that people in love should be able to do.”

“Can we not talk about this here? Anyone could hear us,” Ted said, worry written all over his face… worry and maybe a little bit of guilt. 

Cody nodded. “Do you have anywhere we could go to actually talk one on one? Just talk,” Cody said at Ted’s hesitation. 

“Yeah. We can either go to my room or… or go to the confessional,” Ted told him. They weren’t that far from the church at this point.

While he wouldn’t have objected to going to Ted’s room, there was every chance that one of the priests Ted shared his room with would walk in to change after a service, or something… and they didn’t need anyone hearing the conversation that Cody was planning on having. Plus, it was the confessional where this whole thing really started. “Confessional.”

Ted nodded. He saw that one coming. “Ok.” He knew that the confessional wasn’t exactly the place to have a private conversation, as the booths were meant to hold true confessions between the confessor, the priest and the Father. But, the booths weren’t meant for giving blowjobs, either, and Ted was certainly guilty of being on the receiving end of one of those. 

They were soon standing outside the church in between Cody’s car and the ornate front doors. “Do you need to… change?” Cody asked. Ted wasn’t exactly in his full blown priestly attire, more like jeans and a button down plaid shirt with his dog collar in.

“No. A priest is a priest,” Ted replied as he headed towards the steps. Cody was soon by his side as they took the final few steps into the church. “Follow me… though you probably remember where the booths are.”

“I remember very well,” Cody replied. That was a memory that would be burned into his brain for the rest of his life, of that he was sure. 

Ted unlocked the door and Cody stepped in on one side while Ted got in on the other. He looked at Cody between the grate separating them. “Ok.”

“Do I need to start this like a real confession? Forgive me, Father for I have sinned?” Cody asked. 

“You can.”

“I’m not looking for forgiveness, though. I’m looking for answers. At the restaurant, you told me that you want to make love to me.”

“You’ve known that for quite some time now,” Ted replied. “Lots of us have the urges to, Cody… it’s human nature. It’s our job to fight against it.”

“But why would you want to fight against something so beautiful?” Cody asked him, his blue eyes pleading. “What’s more beautiful than loving someone?”

“Nothing,” Ted answered. “And I do love you… I love you more than anything… but I cannot make love to you.”

“But why not? I know what your vows say, Ted… I know you’re to remain celibate… but don’t you ever feel as though your love for me is at all greater than your love of the priesthood? That your love for me is greater than your vows?”

“That’s a battle that I face every single day,” Ted whispered. “It’s one that I’ve been fighting with even harder since I knew you’d be coming here to visit me again.”

“Will you ever give in?” Cody asked him. “Will I… will I ever win?”

“That’s an answer I can’t give you,” Ted replied. 

“You gave in once. Right here, as a matter of fact…”

“Believe me, I remember that time,” Ted told him, still looking through the grate. “But I don’t know if I could do it again.”

“Ted… Teddy… I want to be able to do the things with you that other couple get to do… I want to kiss you and hold your hand and make love to you and sleep next to you and wake up with you,” Cody said. “It’s almost been a year since I’ve had sex… you’re the last person that I kissed… I love seeing you, but I miss the physical aspect of being with another person.”

“I know, Cody… I told you that if you want to be with other people, you could,” Ted then told him.

“That would hurt you too much. Besides, there’s no one else I want. There’s never been anyone else,” Cody said. “You know that, too.”

“I do. But there are still aspects in this relationship that… where I can’t fulfill all your needs.”

“But what about _your_ needs. Ted, you’re just as human as I am. How long can you suppress your body’s needs?” Cody asked. 

“Most members of the cloth stay for life.”

Cody sighed. He didn’t think there was every going to be a resolution to this. Ever. Ted was always one to hold to his convictions. “And what would happen if you broke your vows?”

“I think you know.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry, Cody. I can’t tell you how sorry I am that I can’t be there for you… that I can’t be that person that you can walk down the street hand in hand with—”

“Stop. Just… stop. There _is_ no one else that I want to walk down the street with. There’s no one else that I want to wake up next to.”

“You could find someone else,” Ted told him.

“I’m _not_ going to find anyone else,” Cody replied. “I’m done with anyone else.”

“But I’m not enough for you.”

“Teddy, you’re everything I want.”

“Obviously I’m _not_ ,” Ted muttered.

“You know you could be,” Cody said, putting his hand up to the grate. “One night…”

“What?”

“One night and I’ll show you just how _incredible_ it is.”

“Cody… I can’t.”

“You know you want to… you have to find out for yourself how good it feels to be with another person, to be _inside_ another person,” Cody said. “There’s no better feeling in the world.”

“And that’s just why I _can’t_.”

“You can, Teddy. You told me that you loved me more than anything… don’t you want to know what it’s like to actually make love to the person who feels the same about you? Because I know I do.”

“But you’ve been—”

“With other guys? Yeah, I have. But I never loved any of them,” Cody confessed to him, though he had a feeling that deep down, Ted already knew that.

“Not even Randy?” Ted asked. 

“No. I like Randy. A lot. He’s a great friend but he loves his wife and we were nothing more than a mutually convenient fuck. From the first time he and I slept together to the last, he knew the entire time that my heart was set on you.”

“Really?”

Cody gripped as best he could at the grate, locking his eyes with Ted. “Really. I’m telling you this before the eyes of God, Teddy. I love you.”

“Give me some more time to think about this.”

“I’m here for two nights, Teddy… there’s not much time to think about it… unless you’re going to tell me to wait until next time to think about it some more.”

“It’s a lot to take in!” 

“You told me that you _can’t_ stop thinking about it already!”

“I can’t! I wish I could… I wish there was a switch in my brain that I could turn off so I could stop thinking about all the things I want to do with you because I know that I _can’t_ do them with you!”

“Maybe you could shut off that part of your brain that’s telling you that you can’t,” Cody suggested. 

“That goes against everything I’m practicing right now… I’ve been an ordained priest for a year, been a member of the clergy even longer… I—”

“You’ve loved me even longer than that. Shouldn’t that be enough?”

“I couldn’t go up before the masses and read passages from the Holy Bible knowing that I broke my vows.”

“It’s not like you’d be the first.”

“What does that even matter? Yes, people have done things to go against their vows, but I’m not them.”

“You already let me suck you off.”

“And I shouldn’t have done that.”

Sighing, Cody dropped his hand and looked away. “And I never should have come here in the first place. I knew it’d be hopeless, but…” he shook his head and went on with a slightly different train of thought, “I just wanted to show you what true love with another person can be like. I knew this was a bad idea.” With that, he opened the door to the confessional box and left. 

Ted was quick to leave the confessional, as well, following behind Cody. “Wait!” Ted called once they were out of the church. Cody was already unlocking the doors of his rental. 

“Wait for what, Teddy?”

“Don’t… don’t do this to me. I told you to go be with others. It’ll sting, yes,” he said, placing his hand over his heart, “but you’ll be more satisfied than waiting around for me.”

“That won’t matter, though! Not even my couple of times with Randy after I’d been with you were as satisfying as they used to be. I want to be with you.”

Ted shook his head and brought his hands up to his face. “I want to be with you, too.”

“But you can’t, right?” Ted nodded and Cody squeezed his eyes shut. “Will you ever kiss me again?”

Ted shrugged his shoulders slightly.

“I see. Look, I’m gonna go find a hotel in the area. You… go do whatever it is you do.”

“Wait, you’re leaving?” Ted asked as Cody walked around to the driver’s side of the car. 

“I’ll be around. I’m giving you time, Teddy. And some space.”

“I have a service tomorrow night,” Ted blurted out before Cody was completely in the car. “It’d mean a lot if you came.”

“I’ll think about it,” Cody said, finally sitting himself down in the driver’s seat, shutting the door before buckling his seat belt and turning the ignition on.

When Cody left, Ted stood there in shock, all the words they exchanged swirling throughout his mind. He really did want all the things Cody wanted. Truly, he did… but as a priest, he was to deny himself those wants. He had food, water, shelter… that’s all a person really needed. He wanted more of what he couldn’t have, though. 

The situation wasn’t fair to anyone involved. Cody wanted Ted, didn’t want to be with anyone else, but he had never had to suppress his body’s urges before and wasn’t dealing with it all that well. Ted wanted Cody, but had already vowed his body be with God and God only. 

No one could win.

Unless Ted broke his vows. He worked so hard to get to that point in his life, though, that he didn’t want it all to be taken away for a single night. Not only would his priesthood be revoked, his reputation would be tarnished, utterly and completely. Those people that trusted him with their secrets, or even with stories of their lives when they met to speak in the streets would hate him, would feel that he was never worthy of his trust in the first place. 

The two loves in his life were now colliding in a way that they’d never done before. They’d done battle before, certainly, but now truly seemed as though one or the other was about to make their final stand. 

He could ask to step down, say that he wished to just be an ordained minister like his father, so he could still actively practice and share his beliefs, but he could, at the same time, be married or… in a relationship as his case would be. 

Or he could take the risk. He could sleep with Cody, make love to him as two people were meant to do and not say a word. It would be extremely difficult, as he knew he would feel guilt, but he carried other people’s secrets around, why couldn’t he carry his own?

It wasn’t as though he would be the only one to know. Cody would know, too. They could talk to one another about it should it ever happen… that would be better than keeping it bottled up.

Assuming, of course, anything actually happened between them. 

The following morning, Ted woke up to sticky sheets. Obviously he knew what his body wanted to happen… and he honestly didn’t know if he wanted his mind to overcome his body this time. 

Cody wasn’t the only person having a hard time fighting against those urges. 

As Ted made himself breakfast, he wondered what it was Cody was doing. While he hoped the man wasn’t waking up next to someone, he really couldn’t blame him if he was. How could he? He said countless times the previous day that he would understand if Cody were with others. 

But, then, Cody wouldn’t have to be with others if he would just give in. Maybe God was testing him, to see who he would pick; to see who he loves more. He wanted a life with God and he wanted love with Cody. How could it possibly be wrong to have that? To have love _and_ God in his life? 

Cody did wake up alone, and he wondered, as he did every day, if that was to be his fate. If every night he would go to bed alone thinking about Ted, wake up every morning alone thinking about Ted, but never being able to have him. 

The day passed and Ted didn’t hear a single word from Cody. He didn’t even know if he was going to be at his service that night. After dressing in his robes, he headed into the church to begin preparations for the Saturday night service. All the psalms they would be reading were posted on the wall, all the seats were checked to make sure there was a Bible and hymn book in the seat in front and the bread and wine were place for the altar boys to bring out later when he offered up the body and blood of Christ.

People started entering the church for the service around five. The Saturday night services could get rather crowded and people showed up early so they could actually find seats. And seats filled fast. 

Cody showed up at around 5:30. Ted didn’t notice him at first, mainly because he was helping a woman with a cane into a seat, then helped her husband with a walker into the seat next to her. 

Once he was back up front, though, and took another look around, he spotted Cody near the back. Hopefully it was because he either couldn’t or didn’t look for a seat closer to the front and not so he could make a quick exit when the service was over. Ted didn’t think he could stand knowing that Cody was there the whole time and they never got a chance to talk to one another.

Ted continued to not only watch people file in, but watch Cody, as well. He appeared to be sitting still, only moving when someone came to sit in the pew next to him. He figured that was a good sign, but he really hoped that he stayed through the entire service. 

Because Ted had done a lot of thinking the previous night. 

It was soon six and time for the service to begin. Ted stood before the crowd, who filled the pews near to capacity, and began speaking to them. And just as he did last time, and all times before that, Cody found himself drawn into Ted’s words. Ted recited some verses, got the whole assembly reading there along with him, rounding it all off with an ‘Amen,’ at the end. And _then_ Ted began leading them in song.

Cody loved listening to Ted when he talked. He had such a sweet southern lilt that managed to captivate him every time he opened his mouth. But hearing that voice in _song_? It was something he hadn’t heard enough of, something he could never tire of. 

The woman sitting next to him was singing along, slightly off key, but he really didn’t care. He held the book out in front of him, mouthing along with the words whenever he glanced down at the page, but it was Ted he was truly focused on. Ted looked so happy, so at peace as he sang.

Maybe one day he’d get Ted to sing to him in private. 

When the service ended, Cody felt that it was over too soon. That thought was one that Cody never thought he’d have, as he never had been one for church service, even when he was younger and in Sunday School. 

A few people stayed afterwards and Ted gladly talked to them. It always amazed Cody just how good around people Ted truly was. His heart was truly kind and giving and so open… but Cody couldn’t help but to want that heart to be open to the kind of love that he so badly wanted to show Ted. 

“I see you showed up after all,” Ted said as he walked down the aisle towards where Cody was now standing, leaning against the pew. 

“Well… yeah, I couldn’t come all this way here to see you and not see one of your services. Look, about yesterday, I didn’t really want to leave you,” Cody told him, “but I thought you really did need the space.”

Ted nodded his head towards the back; he didn’t want to talk about this out here, where anyone could walk in. Following behind in silence, Cody had to wonder just what it was that Ted had to say. Once in a little room in the back of the church, Ted looked around the room and shook his head. “This is where all the kids doing their first communion come to do confession. I guess… I guess it’s kinda fitting that I’m about to have a confession of my own back here.”

“What is it?” Cody asked, now even more curious.

“Yesterday, all the things that were said… you were right, I needed more time to think. I know that I told you that I want to make love to you,” he said in a hushed voice. 

“I know… I remember that. Because then you promptly said that you never would.”

“Every day I show God my love for him. I pray to him, I speak to him for others, I eat and drink from the body of Christ… yet I’ve done nothing to show you how much I love you… all I do is push you away.”

Cody nodded at that. It was the truest statement that Ted had said directly to him in a while. “Yeah, you do. I don’t even remember the last time I ran my fingers through your hair,” Cody said, daringly reaching out to do just that.

Ted didn’t back away, though. He tensed up just slightly at the initial touch, but it was so gentle and reassuring that he almost didn’t want Cody’s hand to stop. “And that’s why I did my thinking yesterday and today. Because… because I do need you to truly see the depth of my love to you,” he whispered. 

“Please tell me that you’re not joking, Ted,” Cody said as his fingers tightened just a touch in Ted’s hair. “I… I couldn’t stand it if you said that to me, then changed your mind.”

“I’m not joking, Cody. I want this, I really do.”

“Don’t just say that to me, Teddy. Prove it to me,” he whispered. 

“I…” he looked down to the floor then squeezed his eyes shut. “Where…?” he asked softly. 

“I still have my hotel room,” Cody said, though his eyes looked to the side where he knew the rectory was located. 

“We can’t, Cody. Not there… the other Fathers are around,” he said, shaking his head side to side. He couldn’t risk someone being there, someone knowing what he was about to do.

“Then we’ll go to my hotel.” Cody’s hand fell from Ted’s hair to his face, thumb brushing over his cheekbone. “I promise you, Teddy, you won’t regret it.”

Ted took a deep breath, but was too nervous to actually say anything else in reply. 

He wasn’t sure if he was already regretting it. 

Still, they headed out the side door, Ted still wearing his robes, because if he took the time to change his clothes, it would probably be enough time for him to change his mind. They walked to Cody’s car, and once inside, Ted’s eyes shut as his mind raced, thinking about what he was going to do. 

He wanted it, he did, had for a long time now, but there was still a large part of him that regretted the blowjob in the confessional. What he wanted to do with Cody would break his vow of celibacy, would degrade all the work he’d put in to become a priest… but it was _Cody_. 

“I can hear your mind working, Ted. What? Did you change your mind again?” Cody asked before he even started the engine. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time that Ted promised him something that he ended up not delivering on. 

Ted shook his head side to side. “No,” he muttered. “I didn’t change my mind.”

Now Cody _did_ start the car and prayed that Ted wouldn’t change his mind by the time they reached the hotel. 

It was only a matter of minutes before they were at Cody’s hotel. “This is where you stayed the first time you came to visit,” Ted recalled as they pulled into the lot of the Hampton Inn. 

“This was where I would have stayed a second night that first visit had you not let me crash on your couch,” Cody replied, looking over to Ted. “You haven’t changed your mind again, have you?”

“I…” Ted’s hand was on the door handle, ready to release the latch when yet another wave of fear overtook him. “What if someone recognizes me?” He knew a lot of people in town, from the people that ran some of the restaurants he frequented to the people that volunteered at the humane society to the people that worked in the few hotels the town housed.

“Do you think they would think that you’re about to go have sex with me?” Cody asked.

“Well… no,” Ted answered. “But they’d probably wonder just what I was doing there.”

“Can’t you just say you’re performing an exorcism?” Cody asked, itching to get out of the car and up to his room. 

“Cody! I don’t do exorcisms… I don’t know, maybe… if someone asks… I’m…” Just the idea of lying to anyone who may ask ate him up inside, because God would know. God would know the reason for the lies… but then, wasn’t God the one that brought them together in the first place?

“You’re here consoling a friend?” Cody suggested. “Maybe someone called you to speak to you privately and you’re such a kind and loving person that of course you said you’d come to see them. But that’s only if someone asks at all. They might not.”

“Cody, I’m wearing my robes; I don’t think I could just slip by.”

“Unless you go around the back.”

“What?”

Cody handed Ted the keys. “Take the car, park it around back. I’ll go in through the front doors and meet you out back to get the door for you, and then from there we can go to my room, hopefully no questions asked.”

To Ted that just seemed like they were piling more and more lies on top of one another. It didn’t seem right, but he didn’t want to say no, not anymore.

“I’ll meet you out back,” Ted said as he took the keys. Cody got out of the car and Ted slid over into the driver’s side and started up the car again as he watched Cody head inside. It was becoming more real by the second. Every second that ticked by it became clearer and clearer in Ted’s mind what he was about to do. 

He could so easily get out of the car right then and there, leaving Cody alone inside that hotel, waiting for him to come in through the back… but then Cody could just as easily go out and find someone to occupy his time with anyway. 

Finally, he put the car into reverse and backed out of the spot, only to drive around and park the car out back. He could see Cody’s outline inside the door, more than ready for him to head inside and go up to his room.

Once he stepped outside of the vehicle, he locked the doors before shutting it and headed towards Cody. Cody opened the door for him, and together they began walking down the hall, heading up the stairwell to the second floor. They were soon standing outside of room 235, Cody with his room key in hand. 

When the little light turned green, he turned the handle and stepped inside. As Ted followed, he allowed the door to fall shut behind them. “Teddy… I’ve been wanting this moment to happen for half my life.”

“And I’ve been spending half my life trying to prevent this moment from ever happening,” Ted muttered. 

“But you love me, right Teddy? If you love me, then you’ll be ok with this happening,” he said, taking a few steps closer to the priest. “If you love me, you’ll want this to happen.”

“I do. I’ve always wanted it to happen.”

“Then let it happen,” Cody whispered as he finally closed the distance. His lips met Ted’s in a gentle kiss as his arms wrapped around his shoulders. His tongue ran along Ted’s lips, and he couldn’t have been more pleased when they parted for him. He let his tongue relearn every surface of Ted’s mouth, from the ridges of his teeth to the roof of his mouth. Once he pulled back, he didn’t even want to try and hide the fact that the corners of his mouth were slowly curling upwards into a smile. “I have missed doing that.”

“Yeah… that was,” he paused for a moment and then brought his hand up to brush at the hair on Cody’s forehead. “That was nice.”

“That’s all it was?” Cody asked. “It was only nice?”

“Well… it was a little more than nice,” he admitted. 

“Just a little bit?” Cody went on questioning. “I thought it was an amazing kiss.” He allowed one of his hands to drift downwards to the front of Ted’s robes. “And I think this speaks for itself,” he said as he palmed Ted’s hard cock. 

Ted sucked in a breath as Cody’s hand ghosted over him. That was a touch he’d felt only once before. 

That was a touch he’d craved every day since the last time he felt it.

“Even through clothing, our bodies fit so perfectly together,” Cody whispered into Ted’s ear. “Please… I want to know what our bodies feel like _together_.”

Ted found himself nodding despite himself. He was still so scared, so confused about what was happening. Especially as Cody began removing the robes that covered his body, laying them gently onto the desk chair. “I bet your body is beautiful,” Cody said. All he’d seen of it before was when he’d unbuttoned Ted’s shirt in the confessional, but that was it. It had been nothing more than a glimpse and a feel. Now he wanted to see everything. 

“I already know yours is,” Ted murmured before he could stop himself. 

“You think my body is beautiful?” Cody asked, somewhat surprised that Ted would admit to such things. 

“I watch it every week, don’t I?”

Cody smiled, running his hand through Ted’s hair and resting it on his neck. “I thought you only watched for your brother.”

Shaking his head slightly, Ted smiled back. “I _mostly_ watch for my brother.”

Leaning in, Cody brought their lips together once again. It was gentle, tender, one that spoke volumes about just how much love he had for this man before him. As they kissed, he kept his left hand wrapped behind Ted’s neck while his right began undoing the buttons of Ted’s black button-down shirt. He started pushing the shirt off Ted’s shoulders, but it wasn’t slipping off as smoothly as it should have. 

Stepping back, Cody then realized why. Slowly, he reached a hand out and began pulling the dog collar out of Ted’s shirt. When it was completely out, he set it down on the desk, right near Ted’s robes. Only then he was able to go back and push Ted’s shirt completely off his shoulders, keeping hold of it so when it was slipped off, he draped it atop the robes. 

“I knew it,” Cody whispered. 

“What?” Ted asked, looking at how Cody was looking at him.

“Your body. I knew it’d be beautiful,” he said, letting his hands run over his chest and stomach, fingering at the beads of Ted’s rosary necklace which he’d yet to take off, feeling the muscles that were normally hidden beneath layer upon layer of clothing. 

“Can… can I?” Ted then asked him, heart pounding under Cody’s palm, as he reached out to Cody’s own shirt. 

Nodding, Cody answered, “Please, do it.”

With shaking hands, Ted began slowly unbuttoning Cody’s shirt, little by little exposing the body that he knew was underneath, the body that he watched every week on TV, the body that he’d wanted to get to know for so long now. After what felt like a lifetime, he finally had all the buttons undone and pushed the shirt off Cody’s shoulders. 

The sight of Cody’s body alone, there, in the flesh, was enough for Ted to suck in a breath of air. “I wish I’d been the one,” he said suddenly. 

“What do you mean?” Cody asked. 

“I wish I’d been the one to first do this with you,” Ted began. “Back, all those years ago… I had my opportunity and I lost it.”

“That doesn’t matter, Teddy. What matters is that we’re here now. This is your opportunity… don’t let this one pass you by,” Cody said, shaking his head side to side lightly. 

“I’m scared,” he admitted. 

“If it makes you feel any better… I am, too,” Cody told him. “I’ve been fantasizing about this moment for a really long time now and I’ve loved you for so long now… I don’t want anything to go wrong. I want this to be the perfect moment, Teddy.”

After taking a deep breath in, Ted replied, “It will be.”

Cody then wrapped his arms around Ted’s waist, pulling their naked torsos together for the first time as he pressed their lips together in another kiss. He felt a jolt of pleasure as their cocks rubbed together and he moaned into the kiss. 

Ted was feeling so many different things, _experiencing_ so many different things… so many new things. He never knew what it felt like to feel another person’s flesh against his like this, but in that moment, he could understand why Cody would actively seek out such physical companionship in others. He felt Cody take a step forward, and he took one backwards. When Cody took another step, he took another step. He walked backwards until he felt his knees hit the edge of the bed.

“Get on the bed, Teddy,” Cody whispered against his lips. “Please.”

Sitting down, Ted then looked up at Cody, the nerves reading in his eyes. 

“Lie down for me,” he said, leaning down and lightly running his hand down Ted’s face. 

With a shuddering breath, Ted began scooting back on the bed, his head resting on the pillow. Once he was lying down, Cody began undoing his pants. The whole while, Cody was muttering things to himself, and Ted wasn’t sure if he was supposed to hear these things or not. Things like, “So beautiful,” and “My God,” were repeated over and over as Cody’s eyes roamed Ted’s body and as he began pulling Ted’s pants down, revealing even more of him. 

Cody paused only briefly in the removal of Ted’s pants to take off Ted’s shoes and socks, as well. Once those were casually tossed to the side, Cody finished his task. And for the first time in his life, he finally saw Ted DiBiase naked.

It was easily far better than anything he’d ever imagined. 

And he’d been imagining it since he was fourteen.

“Do you even know how beautiful you are, Ted?” Cody asked softly. 

Ted shook his head side to side. No one had called him beautiful before. No one had ever seen him like this before, so completely naked both literally and figuratively. 

Cody toed off his own shoes and socks, quickly stripping himself of his own pants and boxers. “Well, you are, Teddy. You’re so beautiful,” he said as he got onto his hands and knees on the bed, slowly crawling up towards where Ted lay. Once his legs were straddling Ted’s hips, he stopped and sat back on his heels and spent the moment admiring the body beneath him. “Wow,” he mouthed as he splayed his hands over Ted’s stomach, feeling muscles tensing beneath his touch. 

It was then that he noticed Ted still wore the rosary beads that he’d worn at his service. They’d slipped off to the side, hanging there as a reminder to Cody just what Ted was, and what Ted was doing for him by being here. He bent down and lightly kissed Ted’s lips. When he kneeled back up, he said, “You’re the most incredible man I know. I love you so much.”

“Cody, I…” Ted was well and truly speechless. He simply didn’t have the words to express to Cody everything that he was feeling. It was all so overwhelming, but… just being there with Cody felt so utterly _right_. “I love you, too.”

Unable to say anything back to that, Cody began crawling back on his hands and knees, this time stopping when he was eye level with Ted’s cock. 

“Cody, what are you doing?” Ted asked, voice cracking.

“Making sure you feel good, Teddy… think of it like a warm up,” he added before he took hold of the base of Ted’s cock and opened his mouth to take the head in. 

It wasn’t that Ted forgot how amazing it felt the first time Cody had done this to him, but the memory of it didn’t compare to the real thing, not even close. “Oh, _Cody_!” Ted cried as more of Cody’s mouth engulfed him.

The fact that he had gotten Ted to call out his name encouraged Cody along further. Now, he didn’t want Ted to come from it, but he wanted to add some stimulus, get him a bit more used to the idea of what they were going to do. His head bobbed up and down, removing his hand so he could take _all_ of Ted into his mouth. 

Ted made a garbled choking, gasping sound in the back of his throat as his cock hit the back of Cody’s. He reached down, grabbing two handfuls of hair, fisting them tight as the sensation overwhelmed him. 

Cody didn’t at all mind the fact that Ted was yanking at his hair, likely pulling some out in the process. No, he welcomed this strong showing of physical pleasure, something he knew was new for Ted, something he never got to feel. He was rather pleased with the fact that Ted was so… _receptive_ to his ministrations.

Hopefully he wasn’t _too_ receptive… Ted was new to all things sexual, after all, and even Cody had to admit, when someone knew what they were doing, blowjobs could bring him off faster than sex. He hadn’t been sucking Ted’s cock for that long before he pulled off with a wet pop. “How’s that feel, Teddy?” Cody whispered, looking up to Ted from where he was still knelt above his cock. 

Ted’s mouth opened and closed a few times, no words actually coming out. His head shook side to side slightly as the speechlessness truly overcame him. Cody was quite happy about the reaction. 

“I don’t want you to come yet,” Cody told him, to which Ted continued to shake his head. When Cody went on, Ted’s eyes widened and his jaw hit the floor. “I want you to come _inside me_.”

Cody had only ever had sex with one person before without protection. Randy. That was back when they first started fucking around together, and it wasn’t every time, either. When Cody was finally brought up to the WWE, they never went bareback… but now Cody hadn’t been with anyone in nearly a _year_ , he was clean and he wanted to be able to _feel_ Ted. He also wanted this to be as good for Ted as possible.

“You want… what?” Ted managed to choke out. 

Cody gladly repeated to Ted just what he wanted. “I want you to come inside me.”

“I— I don’t know if…” Ted trailed off. He was already so close, just from Cody’s mouth alone. He didn’t know if he’d be able to last a second longer if he was actually _inside_ Cody. 

“Teddy…” Cody began crawling back up the bed so now his face was hovering right over Ted’s, “I know that you want this just as much as I do.” He leaned down, touching his lips to Ted’s before pushing himself back up. Cocking his head slightly, Cody then sank down, sitting gently on Ted’s belly, legs pressed right against Ted’s sides, and brought his hand up to Ted’s mouth. One finger traced Ted’s bottom lip, mouth then falling open. With his mouth open, Cody took advantage, slipping his pointer and middle finger inside. 

Ted looked up at him, confused and with two of Cody’s fingers in his mouth. 

The look that Ted was giving him caused Cody to crack a smile. “I think you know what to do,” he whispered. 

With some hesitation, Ted closed his lips around Cody’s fingers, beginning to lick and suck. After a little while, Cody pulled his fingers out. “What are you doing?” Ted asked as he looked into Cody’s eyes. 

“You’ll see soon enough,” Cody answered, now bringing his hand down to his ass. His eyes fluttered close as he pushed his own fingers inside himself. 

“Holy shit,” Ted muttered, tilting his head to the side so he could watch what Cody was doing to himself. 

“I’m getting myself ready for you,” Cody said, sliding his fingers in as deep as he could get them. “I need you inside me.” He leaned down again, but this time when he brought their lips together, he deepened the kiss, letting his tongue roam Ted’s mouth, using one hand to brace himself as he fucked himself with his fingers. 

When Cody pulled back, Ted knew what was happening next. He was actually about to break the vows he made to get to where he was, to become a priest. He’d worked so hard to get here, and in a moment, it would all be gone… he could still be a priest, but he’d always know that he broke those vows of celibacy. However, he then thought about just _who_ he was breaking those vows for… the one man in his life he’d always loved just as much as he loved God himself. 

“I love you, Teddy,” Cody whispered as he shifted once more. He reached behind him and took hold of Ted’s cock, aligning it with his entrance. 

After inhaling a deep breath, Ted replied, “I love you, too,” and gave Cody a little nod. 

At the sign of acceptance, Cody began lowering himself down, _finally_ feeling what it was like to have Ted’s cock slowly worked into his body. His eyes were screwed shut and his mouth was hanging open. It had been a long time since he’d felt skin on skin like this, Ted’s cock so raw as he sunk down lower until he was sitting on Ted’s cock, now completely sheathed inside him. “Oh, fuck!” he cried.

Ted never knew it could feel this good. The experience before in the confessional was nothing like this, nothing like the feel of Cody’s ass around him, so tight and so hot and, “I— I don’t know if I can last long,” Ted managed to say, his voice high pitched and strained as he attempted to keep himself reined in, if only for Cody’s sake. He didn’t know how successful he’d be, though. 

Cody remained unmoving, simply letting Ted adjust to the feeling. He remembered his first time, how quickly he’d come when he was inside Randy as sensations had taken over his body. “It’s ok, Teddy,” he assured him. “Nice, isn’t it? Feels good?” he asked, leaning forward slightly to run a gentle hand down the side of Ted’s face.

Fearing his voice would end up cracking or squeaking, Ted settled on a nod for his answer. If anything, it felt _too good_.

“It’s better than I imagined,” Cody told him, rocking his body back just a bit before rocking forward again. “Do you know how many times I’ve jerked off to the thought of this?” he asked. “All those times I never thought this would ever actually happen… So many lonely nights spent wishing that you were there in bed next to me...”

Ted whimpered as Cody spoke to him, continuing to rock slightly on his cock. “Oh, Cody.”

“This past year alone, Teddy… I thought about your kisses every night… about the feel of your cock in my mouth… Every. Single. Night,” Cody went on, moving a bit more now, a bit faster. 

Another thing that Ted never knew was just how much words could get to him, just how much closer to the edge a few simple words could get him. He gasped as Cody nearly pulled completely off him, just to rock right back onto him until his ass was on Ted’s thighs once more. 

Then Cody’s eyes fell upon something he’d forgotten about, and that Ted himself must have forgotten, as well, otherwise he was certain Ted would have taken it off. Once more he reached out only this time he ran his fingers under the beads of the rosary. 

“Cody,” Ted breathed as he noticed what the younger man was doing. 

His other hand now reached out, fingering both sides of the rosary, the crucifix still flat on Ted’s chest, movements stilled for just a moment. His fingers now wrapped firmly around the rosary, pulling taut as he rose himself up again. 

Ted sat up as Cody pulled, Cody going in for a kiss when Ted was sitting up straight before him. He rocked his hips as he rose and sank over and over, keeping his lips pressed against Ted’s. He was still pulling at the beads, wanting to keep Ted right there with him as he fucked himself on him. Cody whimpered into the kiss, but he ended up pulling just a bit too hard. The string holding the rosary together snapped underneath the force, beads flying every which way. Ted let out a little startled gasp as he felt the string give way, but then Cody began kissing him even harder, deeper. 

Now that he had no rosary to hold onto, Cody wrapped his arms around Ted’s neck, gripping onto his own forearms. He used his own hold as leverage, moving up and down and up and down, his cock now brushing between their two bodies. “Oh, fuck Ted,” Cody mumbled when he pulled back for just a brief moment to take a deep breath. In an instant, though, his lips were back on Ted’s. 

It was Ted’s turn to let out a whimper, feeling himself approaching his climax. He yanked himself out of the kiss, letting Cody know, “I’m so close.”

“Then let go, Teddy,” Cody replied. “I said I want to feel you come inside me.” His lips were then once again attached to Ted’s, tongue in his mouth. 

And then Ted could finally hold on no longer. He let out a long cry as his body began to twitch and shake, experiencing what was easily the strongest of the few orgasms he’d had in his life. His head fell back and his eyes shut, chest heaving. 

Cody couldn’t take his eyes off the so clearly spent man in his arms. “Oh, Teddy,” Cody sighed. He released the grip he had on is own arms and ran one of his hands through Ted’s hair. “I swear to God, you’ve never looked more beautiful than you do right now,” he whispered. 

Ted’s head tilted back up, now letting his forehead rest against Cody’s. “Really?”

Quirking a small smile Cody brushed his hand through Ted’s hair again. “Really.” Shifting himself again, he rose up and pulled Ted’s cock from him. 

“Wait, did you…?” Ted trailed off, looking down to Cody. 

“Not yet,” Cody answered, blushing a bit. “But… I will soon,” he said, taking hold of Ted’s left hand. Slowly, he guided his hand down to his ass, folding down all but two fingers as he then pushed those fingers inside him. 

“Cody!” Ted exclaimed, trying to jerk his hand away. “What are you doing?!”

“You’ll see,” Cody said with a smirk. He pulled Ted’s fingers out and then brought them up to his mouth, lips wrapping right around them as he began licking Ted’s cum off of them. His eyes remained open as he teased the digits with his tongue, holding Ted’s wrist with his left hand as his right hand reached down to begin stroking himself. He moved swiftly, his eyes filled with lust as he pleasured himself and watched as Ted’s expressions changed, from shock and awe to lust and want. “You can touch me if you want,” Cody told him, eyes flicking down to his cock, then back to Ted’s. 

With an unsure hand, Ted reached out and wrapped his own hand around Cody’s, now stroking with each other. When Cody’s eyes shut and his mouth fell open, Ted suspected that Cody was finally about to come. 

He was right. With a shout of Ted’s name to the Heavens, Cody began to come, spurting onto Ted’s stomach as his own body twitched and spasmed slightly. “Holy shit, Teddy. That was amazing.”

“It was?” Ted asked. He knew it felt absolutely incredible for him, but he came so quickly and it was over so soon for him, not to mention the fact that Cody had so much more experience.

“I told you before this was better than anything I could have imagined.” He pushed Ted backwards so they were both lying on the bed, Cody in turn coating his own stomach in his own cum. “And I hope that you enjoyed it just as much as I did.”

Ted nodded. “Yeah… I did.”

“Do you regret it?” Cody then asked him, sadness in his voice as he awaited the expected answer. 

“No.”

Cody sucked in a breath as he got a completely unexpected answer. “No?”

“No.” Ted reached up and placed his hand on Cody’s cheek. “I love you and… and this is what people in love do.

Cody couldn’t remember the last time he was ever so happy. 

They stayed in bed together for a while, both content to simply remain in one another’s arms. “I should probably go back,” Ted whispered. 

“Oh… At least let me take you out to dinner first?”

Ted contemplated it for just seconds. “Ok. Yeah, we can do that.”

“Ok. I guess we should clean up a bit,” Cody said when he spotted the crucifix of the broken rosary. 

Ted nodded and both stood up. He then stared in shock as Cody began going around the room, picking up beads without dressing first. “Aren’t you… don’t you want to put your clothes back on?”

“Why?” Cody asked, not even turning his head to look at Ted. “It’s not like I’ve got anything you’ve never seen before.”

Flushing with embarrassment, Ted remained quiet as he slipped his underwear back on before joining Cody in the search. It didn’t take them too long to find all the missing beads, which Ted then shoved into his the pocket of his robes. 

After making a quick stop in the bathroom to wash up, they both dressed fully (Ted not putting his robes back on, though) and headed back down the stairs to Cody’s car. After dinner, Ted promised Cody that he would drive him to the airport in the morning, and Cody promised Ted that he’d let him fuck him in the ass again before they left for the airport. 

Which was exactly what he did that following morning.

Once Cody was back on the road, he and Randy ran into one another in the locker room. “How was your visit with Saint Theodore?” Randy asked as he began shoving his things into a locker.

“Good.”

Randy turned and looked at his friend, the way his eyes seemed to light up, the way his face seemed to be glowing. “You look happier than I’ve seen you in a long time.”

“Do I?” Cody asked, giving a noncommittal shrug. 

“You didn’t!”

“Didn’t what?”

“You had sex with Ted,” Randy said. It wasn’t a question. 

Cody grinned. “Twice.”


End file.
